Name: Cauliflower a LA Francaise
Ingredients: 1 head of cauliflower; ½ cup coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); water; ½ cup vinegar; ¼ cup butter

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 ↓

Cauliflower a LA Francaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the cauliflower head, stem side down, in cold water with salt for 1 hour, or in cold vinegar and water.
Trim the outer leaves and cut the stalks close.
Cut the cauliflower into quarters and boil in water until tender.

Serve

Drain the cauliflower and arrange it neatly on a dish.
Pour melted butter over the cauliflower.

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.

Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together888 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cauliflower + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together823 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower: Forms the main body of the dish and cooks to a tender texture when boiled.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky coating of fat over the cooked cauliflower.
Vinegar: Acidity in the soaking liquid that helps keep the cauliflower head white.