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Cauliflower with Oil-sauce

A cauliflower dish marinated in oil, vinegar, pepper, estragon, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflower with Oil-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the leaves and cut the stemlets of the cauliflower to proper lengths.

Cook and marinate

  1. Boil the cauliflower in water and add salt when nearly done.

  2. Drain and let cool for an hour while marinating in oil, vinegar, pepper, estragon, and parsley.

Serve

  1. Drain on a sieve and serve on a dish, pouring the oil sauce over it.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cauliflower + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together888 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 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 carries the sauce as the florets soften.
Sweet oil
Carries the flavours of the herbs and vinegar and adds moisture and richness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the oil.

The step that matters

Add salt when nearly done. Salting the boiling water near the end of cooking seasons the cauliflower without leaching it too early. Adding salt too soon can slow softening and draw out more flavour, so timing matters.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, parsley, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, vinegar. 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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