Why it works: Cauliflower and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 888 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
To Pickle Cauliflower
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Separate the stems of the cauliflower.
Wash the stems carefully.
Sprinkle the stems with 1/2 pint of coarse sea salt.
Let the salted stems stand for 12 hours.
Shake off the salt.
Pickle
Place the stems in jars with a few peppercorns.
Cover the stems with boiling vinegar.
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.
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Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together888 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 stems
- The main vegetable that is firmed and preserved by the pickling brine.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws water out of the stems during the long rest, firming their texture before pickling.
- Boiling vinegar
- Acidity that preserves the stems and gives them their sharp, tangy flavour.
The step that matters
Shake off the salt. Stems left coated in salt will taste overly salty and harsh. Shaking them off after the 12-hour rest removes surface salt before the vinegar is added.
“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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