Skip to main content
Main

Cauliflowers Boiled

Boiled cauliflower with vinegar and salt, served with white sauce.

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 ↓

Cauliflowers Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose a white, firm, and small cauliflower. Trim off the leaves and stalk.

  2. Wash the cauliflower well in cold water with 1 tablespoon of vinegar to remove any insects.

Cook

  1. Put the cauliflower in boiling water for 5 minutes, then remove, cool, and drain.

  2. Boil again in 2 quarts of water with 1 teaspoon of salt until tender but still firm.

Serve

  1. Serve with a white sauce or sauce for 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.

  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

Cauliflower
Forms the main body of the dish and sets its tender but firm texture when boiled.
Vinegar
Added to the wash water to help remove insects from the cauliflower.

The step that matters

Boil again until tender but still firm. Cauliflower keeps cooking after it leaves the water, and overcooking breaks down its cell walls, leaving it mushy. Pulling it when a knife slips in with slight resistance keeps its texture.

“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 boiled cauliflower recipes

with Butter 4with Tomato Sauce 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