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Pickled Cauliflower

Pickled cauliflower preserved in vinegar and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 687 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Pickled Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Boil the cauliflower in scalding brine for 3 minutes.

  2. Remove the cauliflower and lay it on a sieve or cloth.

  3. Sprinkle the cauliflower thickly with salt. Brush off the salt.

  4. Cover the cauliflower with cold vinegar for 2 days.

  5. Place the jar in the sun.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. Pack the cauliflower into stoneware jars.

  2. Combine 1 gallon of vinegar with sugar, mace, celery seed, white peppercorns, red pepper pods, coriander seed, and mustard in a pot. Boil the mixture for 5 minutes.

  3. Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the packed cauliflower.

Finish and keep

  1. Repeat the scalding process once a week for 3 weeks.

  2. Keep the cauliflower submerged in vinegar by placing a small plate on top.

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 + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + coriandertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Cauliflower + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together488 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 crisp, firm pickled body that holds the brine flavour.
Cold vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves and sours the cauliflower.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the cauliflower and seasons it before pickling.
Coriander seed
Adds warm, citrusy aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the cauliflower submerged in vinegar. Pieces left above the liquid can spoil or dry out and darken, so the small plate must hold everything under the vinegar.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, celery, pepper, coriander, mustard):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, celery, pepper, coriander, mustard. 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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