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Cauliflower Salad

A salad of boiled cauliflower dressed with oil, tarragon vinegar, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cauliflower Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Boil the cauliflower in salted water until tender but not overcooked.

  2. Once cold, cut the cauliflower into small sprigs.

Make the dressing

  1. In a bowl, mix the oil, tarragon vinegar, pepper, and salt.

  2. Rub a serving dish lightly with garlic.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the cauliflower pieces on the dish.

  2. Sprinkle capers, tarragon, chervil, and parsley over the cauliflower.

  3. Add a pinch of dried thyme and marjoram.

  4. Pour the oil and vinegar mixture over the salad and serve.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Capers + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tarragon + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together379 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cauliflower + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cauliflower + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together51 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 salad and provides its main texture once cooked until tender.
Oil
Carries fat-soluble flavour and gives the dressing a smooth, coating body.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Capers
Contribute a sharp, briny bite that contrasts with the mild cauliflower.

The step that matters

Boil the cauliflower until tender but not overcooked. Cauliflower keeps cooking as it cools, and overboiling softens its cell walls too far, leaving it mushy and waterlogged instead of firm enough to hold its sprigs in the salad.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, garlic, capers, chervil):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, tarragon, vinegar, pepper, garlic, capers, chervil. 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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