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Pickled Cauliflowers

Pickled cauliflower is preserved in a vinegar and mustard brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 Cauliflowers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve ½ pint of coarse sea salt in enough water to cover the vegetables and let them stand overnight.

  2. Drain the vegetables.

Pickle

  1. Heat 2 quarts of vinegar with 4 tablespoons of mustard until it boils.

  2. Add the vegetables and boil for about 15 minutes, or until a fork can be easily thrust through 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.

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

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

  2. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 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 pickle and absorbs the vinegar brine as it cooks.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that complements the acidic vinegar brine.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the vegetables overnight, firming them before pickling.

The step that matters

Boiling the vegetables in the vinegar. Boiling for about 15 minutes until a fork passes easily through the cauliflower ensures the vegetables are tender enough to eat while still holding their shape. Overcooking can make them mushy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, pepper, vinegar, 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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