My friend Kathleen Purvis, food editor at the Charlotte Observer, calls this classic relish southern kimchi. Kathleen wrote in a 2011 article that chowchow is also known as chow-chow, chow chow, piccalilli, even end-of-the-season relish. It’s typically made with what’s left in the garden before the first frost: green tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, and onions. Other ingredients can sneak into chowchow as well: carrots, cauliflower, and zucchini. Enjoy a tablespoon of this relish on hot dogs, hamburgers, or pinto beans. You can also add it to potato salad, macaroni salad, chicken salad, or egg salad. I use a mandolin to make quick work of shredding and dicing the cabbage, onion, and jalapeños. If you like a hotter relish, increase the number of jalapeños.
6 green tomatoes, diced
2 medium heads cabbage, shredded
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 small red bell pepper, diced
2–3 jalapeños, seeded and diced
1/4 cup pickling salt
2 cups water
6 cups white vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons celery seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoons ground mustard
2 teaspoons turmeric
Place the tomatoes, cabbage, onion, bell peppers, and jalapeños in a large nonreactive container with a lid. (I use a 12-quart plastic bucket with a lid that I purchased at a restaurant-supply store.) Add enough ice water to cover the vegetables and add the pickling salt. Stir, cover with a lid, and let sit for 12–24 hours.
The next day, drain and rinse the vegetables in a colander several times until the saltiness is to your liking.
Place the vegetables in a large stainless-steel stockpot or enamel Dutch oven. Add the water, vinegar, sugar, celery seeds, mustard seeds, ground mustard, and turmeric. Bring the mixture to a boil.
Pack the chowchow into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Follow the boiling-water canning instructions on page 10. Process the jars for 10 minutes. Let the relish sit for 1 month before eating.