Chow Chow

Food & Cooking
1

Tubercle loves chow chow.

This is my grandmother’s chow chow recipe that she had written on the back of an envelope. I thought I would share it with  everyone. This makes a bunch so some scaling down may be necessary.

There are tons of recipe variations so make it to your liking.

1 peck green tomatoes
3 - 4 hot peppers
1 large cabbage (shreaded)
5-6 cups sugar
8 large onion
2 quarts vinegar
3 green bell peppers
3 red bell peppers
1 tbsp dry mustard
1 tsp celery seed
¼ cup plain salt
*1 tsp allspice
*2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp clover ( place in bag)

Let tomatoes and onions and salt stand overnight. Then drain and squeeze-dry. Add cabbage, pepper, dry mustard and celery seed. Mix.

Boil vinegar and sugar (5 min). Put in rest of spices in bag. Boil 5 minutes more. Remove bag of spices. Mix all vegetables and boil 5 minutes more. While hot, fill jars and seal.

I have tweaked this recipe several times and go light on the tomatoes and a little heavier on the cabbage and add black peppercorns to the spice bag.

Use standard hot bath canning and sanitation methods, please…

2

I’ll post this again because I love this stuff anyway one can prepare it.  ;D

…and here is the Amish version…mmm…my favorite.

3

I love that stuff too. For some reason down here its called bean salad.

4

Interesting.

Reminds me of pickled watermelon rind. I cant remember if that is a southern thing. I picked it up along the way somewhere.

Sometimes I make pickled watermelon rind at the end of the summer to have it ready for the holidays. Havent done it in a few years though.

Goes great with rib roast of pork.

5

I don’t know if its just a southern thing but pickled watermelon rind is popular. Along with pickled peaches. And pickled pig feet.

6

Pickled Pigs Feet or (Zimne Nogi) is a traditional Polish Easter and Christmas treat.

7

AFAIK Chow Chow is a condiment? Bean Salad is a side-dish here in the South. But a web search turned up various different things for CC. I’ve seen it almost all corn as a relish. So broad term. Basically it’s pickled veggies. So I learned something today!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chow-chow

8

Never even heard of this stuff!  Looks like a cross between kimchi and chutney or something.

9

Its basically a condiment. A heaping spoonful mixed in with pinto beans is delish.

I like to make mine on the hot side and I always make a dozen or so pints with yellow squash as the main ingredient every year. Yum yum.

10

How do you make it hot Tubercle?

11

Yep, I made a dozen pint jars last Fall.  Mine (actually my Grandmother’s recipe) is mainly green tomatoes, green peppers, and onions.  Hadn’t thought about “hotting” it up, you talking about something like adding Jalapenos?

12

Sometimes I just de-seed some hot peppers and chop them up in the food processor or just put a 2 or 3 whole pods in the jar with the rest of the stuff. I prefer tabasco. I usually raise a couple of plants every year and let them turn red and then just start to dry on the plant. Or, a few good splashes of texas pete in jar will do the trick.

Lately I’ve been going heavy on the fresh garlic and mustard seeds for some reason ;D

There is really no right or wrong ingredients for this stuff. The pickling liquor can make a difference though. It can get too sweet or vinegar like according to your individual taste.

Just like beer, it a life long experiment. :smiley:

13

Thanks for the info, my red jalapenos are very hot, good to know. I like the idea of garlic and mustard.

14

Have you ever tried Giardiniera it’s an Italian or Italian-American relish of pickled vegetables in vinegar or oil. Giardiniera is available as either mild or hot. Hot giardiniera is often referred to as “Hot Mix”.

I love this stuff. Great on salads and sandwiches.

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