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chow chow

alacarte

By alacarte
in Pastry & Baking

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eunny jang

eunny jang

Posted
Posted

Hmmm, I always thought of chowchow as a Lancaster Pennsylvania-Dutch thing (end-of-the-garden pickles).

Conventional wisdom is the name is borrowed from a sweet Chinese condiment of ginger and citrus preserved in syrup.

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andiesenji

andiesenji

Posted
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It is a southern thing too as it was one of the things "put up" when I was a child. I still make it. I have several recipes I can pull up when I get home tonight. I don't have them on my computer here or on my powerbook.

I have one made with fresh sweet corn that is really tasty, a favorite with my friends.

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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ludja

ludja

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Well, to add another region to the mix, I have recipes for chow chow in several of my older/historical New England Cookbooks.

Here's a quote from Lillian Langseth-Christensen's "Mystic Seaport Cookbook" (1970) on chow-chow. (She wrote this book using old historical sources and materials from the Marine Historical Association"

"Brought by India and China by the whalers, chowchow is similar to mixed pickles with all the Indian condiments added: mustard, tumeric, cloves, ginger, cayenne, black and white pepper".

Since settlements with whaling were in New England in the 1600's, it seems very reasonable that it would have originated there next to "the source" of the ingredients; namely, the spices off of the whaling ships. They had to do lots of preserving and pickling for long trips at sea and for long New England winters. Seems likely the spices to make chow chow moved along as America was settled.

The tie to pickling and preserving seems to be more stronger among the PA Dutch and in the South--i.e persisting on a wider scale into more recent times. Probably why people associate things like chow-chow with the South or PA Dutch. (Lots of pickles and preserves in old New England books).

Anyway, after the quote, all my ramblings are just amateur speculation!

"Under the dusty almond trees, ... stalls were set up which sold banana liquor, rolls, blood puddings, chopped fried meat, meat pies, sausage, yucca breads, crullers, buns, corn breads, puff pastes, longanizas, tripes, coconut nougats, rum toddies, along with all sorts of trifles, gewgaws, trinkets, and knickknacks, and cockfights and lottery tickets."

-- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1962 "Big Mama's Funeral"

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bleachboy

bleachboy

Posted
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Tennessee is a great chow chow state, too. My local meat guy also sells some locally-made Tennessee chow-chow. I frequently give it as a gift to out-of-state residents. It's really a great condiment. Not sure why it's not more popular, apart from the (sometimes) kind of wierd sounding ingredients.

Don Moore

Nashville, TN

Peace on Earth

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Toliver

Toliver

Posted
Posted
Anyone know why "chow chow" is named that? It seems like such a silly name for a fabulous pickle condiment.

From what I've seen on the web there are a couple theories of origination.

First Theory: "Chow" (actually "chou") is Chinese Pigden English meaning "miscellaneous cargo".

Second Theory: "Chow" is Chinese Pigden English for "food".

If the first theory is true, then it's easy to see the natural transition from it to the second theory.

Given that there isn't just one recipe for "chow chow" but that it can be made from a variety of ingredients, seems to go hand in hand with the "miscellaneous" aspect of the word derivation.

 

“Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there's a message in my Alphabits. It says, 'Oooooo.'

Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.”

– From Fox TV’s “Family Guy”

 

Tim Oliver

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