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Pickled Cauliflower

Cauliflower pickled in vinegar with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pickled Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Break the cauliflower into small pieces.

  2. Boil in salted water for 10-15 minutes.

  3. Drain and let cool.

  4. Place in a jar.

Make the pickling liquid

  1. In hot vinegar, scald a generous amount of whole cloves, pepper, allspice, and white mustard seeds in a spice bag.

  2. Remove the vinegar from heat and stir in 2 teaspoons of French mustard and ½ cup of white sugar for each quart of vinegar.

Pickle and seal

  1. Pour the vinegar over the cauliflower, ensuring it is fully covered, and seal the jar tightly.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the crisp-textured body of the pickle that absorbs the vinegar brine.
Hot vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickled flavour.
White sugar
Balances the sharp vinegar with sweetness.
French mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour and helps emulsify the brine.
White mustard seeds
Contribute pungent, earthy flavour as they infuse into the vinegar.

The step that matters

Cooling the cauliflower before jarring. Cauliflower that is still hot or wet when placed in the jar can soften and dilute the brine. Draining and cooling it first helps it stay firm and keeps the vinegar at full strength.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, pepper, allspice, mustard, sugar. 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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