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Cauliflower Salad

A salad of boiled cauliflower dressed with French dressing, optionally flavored with tarragon vinegar and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cauliflower Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Boil the cauliflower until tender, then drain and cool.

  2. Separate the cauliflower into branches.

Dress the salad

  1. Mix the cauliflower with French dressing.

  2. Add tarragon vinegar and parsley if desired.

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. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Cauliflower + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together888 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 salad's main body, and boiling softens its texture until tender.
French dressing
Adds fat and acidity that coat the florets and carry the flavor.
Tarragon vinegar
Adds sharp acidity and a distinct aniseed aroma to the dressing.

The step that matters

Drain and cool the cauliflower before dressing. Water left on the cooked florets dilutes the French dressing, so it coats less well and the salad tastes watery. Cooling also keeps the florets from wilting further under the dressing.

Swap the tarragon

The recipe marks tarragon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, vinegar, parsley):

  1. Tarragonthe original
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits less well
  4. Garlicfits less well

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