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To Pickle Cauliflowers

A method for pickling cauliflower using salt, brine, spices, and white wine vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

To Pickle Cauliflowers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Cut off the thick stalk of the cauliflowers and split the flower part into 8 to 10 pieces.

  2. Spread the pieces on a large dish, sprinkle with coarse sea salt, and let stand for 24 hours.

  3. Wash off the salt, drain the pieces, and place them in a broad flat jar or pan.

  4. Scald the cauliflowers with a brine made from ¼ pound of salt dissolved in 1 quart of water.

  5. Cover the jar closely and let the cauliflowers sit in the brine until the next day.

  6. Drain the cauliflowers in a fine sieve and spread them on a cloth in a warm place to dry for 24 hours.

Make the pickle

  1. Prepare the pickle by grinding coriander seed, turmeric, mustard seed, and ginger into a fine powder.

  2. Mix the powder with 3 quarts of white wine vinegar and let it infuse by the fire for 3 days.

Pickle and seal

  1. Pour the infused pickle over the dried cauliflowers in clean jars, ensuring they are well covered.

  2. Seal the jars tightly to keep out air.

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. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cauliflower + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Coriander + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Whitest full-grown cauliflowers
Forms the firm, crisp pickled body that absorbs the vinegar infusion.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture from the cauliflower and seasons it during the salting and brining.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cauliflower and carries the spice flavour.
Coriander seed
Adds a warm, citrusy aroma to the infused pickle.
Turmeric
Colours the pickle a bright yellow and adds earthy flavour.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, sharp flavour to the infused vinegar.

The step that matters

Drying the cauliflower before pickling. Pieces left damp dilute the vinegar and can spoil or soften the pickle. Drying them fully on a cloth in a warm place lets the surface accept the infused vinegar evenly and keeps the pickle firm.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, coriander, turmeric, mustard, white wine, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, coriander, turmeric, mustard, white wine, 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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