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Pickled Cauliflower

Pickled cauliflower preserved in a vinegar brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Break the cauliflower into small pieces.

  2. Boil in salted water for 10-15 minutes.

  3. Drain and let cool.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In hot vinegar, scald whole cloves, pepper, allspice, and mustard seeds in a spice bag.

  2. Remove the vinegar from heat and stir in French mustard and sugar per quart.

Pack and seal

  1. Place the cauliflower in a jar.

  2. Pour the vinegar over the cauliflower, ensuring it is fully covered, and seal tightly.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Cauliflower + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together105 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the bulk of the pickle and softens slightly when boiled before pickling.
Vinegar
Provides sharp acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sourness of the vinegar.
French mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour to the pickling liquid.
White mustard seeds
Release pungent, sharp flavour when steeped in the hot vinegar.
Whole allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Fully covering the cauliflower with vinegar. Vegetables exposed to air can spoil and grow mould. Keeping every piece submerged in the acidic liquid protects the pickle, so the jar should be sealed tightly after pouring.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, allspice, mustard, sugar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, allspice, mustard, sugar. 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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