Skip to main content
Main

Pickled Cauliflower

A pickled cauliflower prepared by steeping in brine and vinegar with curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Pickled Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all leaves and trim the stalks of the cauliflower.

  2. Separate the flowers into bunches and steep them in brine for 2 days.

Pickle

  1. Drain the cauliflower, wipe it dry, and place it in hot vinegar infused with 3 ounces of curry powder per quart for 3 days.

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 + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Firm cauliflower heads
Provide the main vegetable; firmness helps the florets hold their shape through brining and pickling.
Brine (saltwater solution)
Seasons the cauliflower and draws out some moisture, firming its texture before pickling.
Vinegar
Acidifies the cauliflower, preserving it and giving the pickle its sharp, tangy flavor.
Curry powder
Flavors the vinegar with aromatic spices, colouring and seasoning the cauliflower as it pickles.

The step that matters

Drying the cauliflower before pickling. Wiping the florets dry before they enter the hot vinegar keeps excess brine from diluting the vinegar and weakening its acidity and flavor penetration, so the pickle tastes consistent.

“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.

More pickled cauliflower recipes

Spiced 3 See all 97 →

You might also like

Cauliflower SoupCauliflower Soup28 recipesCream of Cauliflower SoupCream of Cauliflower Soup22 recipesCreamed CauliflowerCreamed Cauliflower17 recipesEscalloped CauliflowerEscalloped Cauliflower9 recipes