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Spiced Cauliflower

A spiced cauliflower preserved in vinegar brine with mace, celery seed, peppercorns, and mustard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 687 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Spiced Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Select small, white, close bunches of cauliflower.

  2. Boil the cauliflower in scalding brine for 3 minutes, then drain.

  3. Sprinkle the cauliflower thickly with coarse sea salt and brush off excess when dry.

  4. Cover the cauliflower with cold vinegar for 2 days, placing the jar in the sun.

Pickle and store

  1. Pack the cauliflower carefully in glass jars.

  2. Prepare scalding vinegar by boiling 1 gallon of vinegar with 1 cup of white sugar, 12 blades of mace, 1 tablespoon of celery seed, 24 white peppercorns, bits of red pepper pods, 1 tablespoon of coriander seed, and 1 tablespoon of white mustard for 5 minutes.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar over the packed cauliflower.

  4. Place a small plate on top of the jar to keep the cauliflower submerged.

  5. Scald the jars once a week for 3 weeks, then tie up and store.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Cauliflower + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together488 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the crisp, pickled vegetable that absorbs the vinegar brine over days.
Cold vinegar
Acidic liquid that preserves the cauliflower and gives it its sharp, tangy flavour.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture from the cauliflower, firming its texture before pickling.

The step that matters

Keeping the cauliflower submerged. Any pieces left above the vinegar can spoil or mould, because air exposure allows microbes to grow. A small weighted plate keeps everything under the liquid.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, celery, pepper, coriander, mustard):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, celery, pepper, coriander, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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