Name: Pickled Cauliflower or Red Cabbage
Ingredients: cauliflower or red cabbage; strong salt; water; vinegar; whole black pepper; celery seed

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pickled Cauliflower or Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the cauliflower or red cabbage in a strong saltwater solution for 4 days.
Remove and drain the vegetables.
Boil vinegar with whole black pepper and celery seed to taste.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the pickles.
Let sit for 6 weeks for best flavor, but they will be better after 3 months.

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.

Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cauliflower + celerytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together488 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,113 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together888 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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