GREENSBORO, N.C. — This year, Our State magazine is celebrating its 90th anniversary and to mark the milestone each month, Our State will feature retro recipes from the archives as we revisit flavors from pages past. For August, Chef Lynn Wells has adapted these recipes for current times: ChowChow, Pickled Green Tomatoes, and Pear and Pineapple preserves.
You can find the ChowChow recipe right here. This recipe comes form columnist Carol Dare, kind of. In September 1940, Dare asked for the recipe after she smelled the chowchow cooking next door, but the man simply informed her that he “cut up cabbage until he was tired” and “cut up green peppers until he cut his finger and then onions until his eyes started watering.” In regard to cooking time, “he cooked it until it was time to listen to his favorite news broadcast.
ChowChow
Yield: 6 pints
6 pounds Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 heads cabbage, finely shredded
4 large yellow onions, chopped
6 green bell peppers, cored, seeded, and diced
3 yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded, and diced
1 cup salt
½ gallon white distilled vinegar
6 tablespoons yellow mustard seed
1 tablespoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon celery seed
2 pounds light brown sugar
Place tomatoes, cabbage, onions, and bell peppers in a large bowl or food bucket. Cover vegetables with cold water. Stir in salt and let sit at room temperature overnight.
Drain the vegetable mixture in a colander and rinse well to remove salt.
Place vegetables in a large stockpot. Add vinegar, mustard seed, cloves, allspice, celery seed, and sugar. Cook on low heat for 1 to 2 hours.