Most condiments understand their role: uplift but never upstage. But in Trinidad and Tobago, the show can’t go on without chow chow, a citrine-colored, spice-laced and veggie-packed relish.
With mustard at its core, chow chow combines fruit, vegetables and aromatics — carrots, bell peppers, bitter melon, pineapple, mangoes, papaya, ginger, cloves, onions and garlic — into an assertive yet nuanced topping for baked ham. Scotch bonnet chiles give it fire.
Recipe: Pineapple Chow Chow
The custom of eating it on Christmas morning has been diligently passed down across generations.
Growing up in Trinidad, the chef Osei Blackett of Ariapita, in Flatbush, Brooklyn, recalls a dozen or more loved ones at his grandmother’s house, where she’d make a spread of clove-studded ham, hops bread (a buttery, slightly sweet and ethereally airy extra large dinner roll) and, of course, chow chow.
“We couldn’t have Christmas breakfast without it,” he said.
Natasha Laggan, a Trinidadian cook who posts on social media as @TriniCookingWithNatasha, says she teaches her 8-year-old son, AJ, that chow chow always goes with ham, “because it’s tradition,” she said. “How could I not?”
Despite chow chow’s prevalence, its genesis is uncertain, as is how it became the quintessential condiment of Trinbagonian Christmas. It is widely believed to be a descendant of English piccalilli, which is an Anglicized adaptation of the fragrant, acidic and flavor-packed pickles found throughout South Asia.
Elizabeth Raffald, the 18th-century homemaker and entrepreneur, who was regarded as “England’s most influential housekeeper,” wrote about the process of making piccalilli in her 1769 book, “The Experienced English Housekeeper.” That condiment proliferated throughout England and ultimately through the West Indies over centuries of British rule, becoming an indispensable part of Trinidad and Tobago and how its people celebrate Christmas. The inclusion of tropical fruits, aromatics and vegetables makes chow chow unapologetically Caribbean.
For Mr. Blackett, it made for an unforgettable holiday spread. “The combination of the warm freshly baked bread, thick slice of salty ham and sharp, sweet chow chow was just incredible,” he said of his grandmother’s feast, adding, “When it was finished, we all knew that we had to wait until next year to enjoy it again.”
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