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Chow-chow

A pickled vegetable relish made with cucumbers, pickles, onions, tomatoes, cauliflower, peppers, and a sweet‑tart brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and cauliflower 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 the vegetables

  1. Combine cucumbers, small pickles, onions, green tomatoes, cauliflower, and green peppers in a large bowl.

  2. Prepare a brine with 1 cup of salt and 1 gallon of cold water.

  3. Add the vegetables to the brine and let them soak for 24 hours.

  4. After 24 hours, scald the vegetables in the same brine.

  5. Drain the vegetables.

Make the dressing and finish

  1. In a saucepan, mix flour, ground mustard, turmeric, and a little vinegar to make a paste.

  2. Add sugar and enough vinegar to the paste to make a total of 2 quarts.

  3. Boil the mixture until smooth and thick, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

  4. While the mixture is hot, add the drained vegetables and stir to combine.

  5. The chow-chow is ready to serve immediately but tastes better after sitting for a while.

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. Cucumber + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together584 recipes

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

  2. Cauliflower + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green cucumbers
Firm pieces that stay crisp through brining and give the relish its main texture.
White button onions
Add sharp flavor and a firm bite that holds up after scalding.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the mustard mixture into a smooth, thick sauce that coats the vegetables.
Ground mustard
Supplies the sharp, pungent flavor that defines the dressing.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that gives the relish its tang and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Boil the mustard mixture until smooth and thick. Flour thickens only when heated fully while stirred, and it can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring prevents lumps and burning, and the thickened sauce then coats the vegetables evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, pepper, flour, mustard, turmeric):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, tomato, cauliflower, pepper, flour, mustard, turmeric. 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.

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