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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish of tomatoes, onions, horseradish, sugar, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, cucumbers, turmeric, mustard, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 584 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chow-chow

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the onions and tomatoes together.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let drain in a colander overnight.

Combine and finish

  1. In the morning, chop all the ingredients and mix them together.

  2. Scald the vinegar without boiling it.

  3. Add the horseradish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cauliflower + cucumbertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Horseradish + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cauliflower + cabbagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Horseradish + cucumbertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Horseradish + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Make up most of the bulk and, once salted, release water to keep the pickle from becoming soggy.
Onions
Add savory sharpness and aroma that deepen as the chow chow rests.
White wine vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Horseradish
Contributes a pungent, sinus-clearing heat that fades slightly with time.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that complements the vinegar and spices.

The step that matters

Salting and draining overnight. Salt draws water out of the sliced onions and tomatoes by osmosis. Draining removes that liquid so the vegetables stay crisp and the finished pickle does not turn watery or dilute the vinegar.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, horseradish, sugar, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, cucumber):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, horseradish, sugar, cauliflower, celery, cabbage, cucumber. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More chow chow recipes

Relish 49Pickle 25Pickles 16Tomato 9Cucumber 4Salad 3 See all 120 →

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