You probably can’t make this recipe now, but if you had the traditional Southern New Year’s Day menu of peas and collards, you probably wished you had made some last year – so save this recipe so you can make it this year.
We are talking about chow chow. I’m not stuttering, nor is that a typographical error. Chow chow is pleasing to the taste with many foods. It would be called a pickle, but “relish’ best describes the concoction.
This recipe is from Jo Ann S. Sloan of Holly Springs Baptist Church, located centrally among Greer, Campobello and Inman. With a medium to large membership, Holly Springs averages around 400 on Sunday. Rev. Tim Clark has been the pastor there about 15 years, and Rev. Chris Jackson has been in his position of associate pastor eight years.
Jo Ann, a retired sixth-eighth grade school teacher, and her husband Dan, a retired banker, have one child. Their daughter Danna, a CPA, and her husband, Dr. Jeff Brown, live not too far away in Greenville.
Jo Ann taught Sunday school for 50-plus years, but now is on a schedule with the Sanctuary Class to teach once every five weeks. She also set up the church’s history room, and there’s a lot of history because the church was organized in 1804 with 56 members. Meeting first in a “brush arbor” and later moving to the Hogan family cabin when winter came, the group looked for a place for a church building in the spring. What they found was a spring surrounded by holly trees. Hence the name.
In 2004, Jo Ann wrote a history of the church, and the following year the publication was named History of the Year by the South Carolina Baptist Convention. Many of the historical facts were from her maternal grandmother, Mattie Caldwell Johnson, who also gave her this chow chow recipe.
This recipe, Jo Ann says, is like many others: It can be altered by availability of ingredients and “is made with what you have.” Sometimes, she says, she uses “more tomatoes than pepper, sometimes more pepper.” She always keeps the syrup mixture the same, but the amount of hot pepper can be varied according to taste.
Jo Ann Sloan
She uses the food processor to prepare the vegetables because it saves time. My personal preference is to chop rather that grind the vegetables. One recipe suggests adding the salt to the mixture and letting it stand overnight. Probably so the cook can rest from all that chopping.
The cooking time can vary with the recipe, from 15 minutes to an hour. Some recipes ask for celery, cucumbers, etc. It seems there are as many ways to make chow chow as there are to make vegetable soup. This is one way, and a good one, and we thank Jo Ann for sharing it with us. Jo Ann usually cooks two or three batches of the chow chow and makes preserves from her prolific fig trees, giving both as Christmas gifts.
Save this recipe, and next summer when the vegetables are available, take a day to make chow chow. If you do, this time next winter you’ll be glad you have chow chow relish to add to your menu for … Sunday Dinner.
Grandma Johnson’s Chow Chow
2 quarts cabbage
2 quarts firm green tomatoes
2 cups onion
2 tablespoons pickling spice
3 cups sugar
2 cups green sweet peppers
2 cups sweet red peppers
Hot pepper as desired
4 cups vinegar
3 tablespoons salt
(Note: The measurements for the vegetables are after they are ground or chopped.)
Grind (or chop) the cabbage, tomatoes, peppers and onions. Drain very well. Salt, let stand, and drain “dry” again.
Place in large pan. Add vinegar and sugar. Remove the bay leaf, if any, from the pickling spice and tie spice in cheesecloth. Add spice bag to pan and boil well for approximately 15 minutes.
Mixture will change color when done. Remove spice bag.
Pack hot chow chow into hot, sterilized jars and seal immediately.
Chill to serve, and refrigerate jar after opening.