Talk:Chow-chow

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We made a dish called "chow-chow" from an old recipe that came from the farm. It consists of two heads of cabbage, 24 green tomatoes (fresh from the garden), 4 green bell peppers, 4 red bell peppers, 8 onions and 8 carrots. All of these are ground up fine using an old fashioned grinder. We attached the grinder to the picnic table so that afterwards the crumbs could just be hosed off.

After all the vegetables are ground together, they are salted and spooned into a canvas bag. The bag is tied tightly at the neck with a string, then hung up to drain overnight. The next day we washed and sterilized many canning jars, while heating three pints of vinegar in a large pan, to which we added six cups of sugar and stirred until the sugar dissolved completely. Next the vegetables were added to the vinegar-sugar mixture, along with 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds and 1 teaspoon of dill seeds. The mixture is allowed to get hot, but not to boil. We filled 12 canning jars with the mixture and carefully placed the lids on - they had to be turned to just "fingertip" tightness, no more. The next day the jar lids can be tightened the rest of the way.

I guess this recipe comes from my grandmother who grew up on a farm down in southern Missouri. It's called "chow-chow," but I've heard some of the other folks also pronounce it "cha-cha."

L. Williams