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Spiced Cauliflower

A pickled cauliflower preserved in a spiced vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Spiced Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Select small, white cauliflower and boil in scalding brine for 3 minutes.

  2. Drain and sprinkle thickly with coarse sea salt; brush off when dry.

  3. Cover with cold vinegar for 2 days, setting the jar in the sun.

  4. Pack carefully in glass jars.

Make the spiced vinegar

  1. Prepare the spiced vinegar: boil 1 gallon of vinegar with 1 cup of white sugar, 12 blades of mace, 1 tablespoon of celery seed, 24 white peppercorns, bits of red pepper pods, 1 tablespoon of coriander seed, and 1 tablespoon of white mustard for 5 minutes.

  2. Pour the scalding spiced vinegar over the cauliflower.

  3. Place a small plate on top of the jar inside to keep the cauliflower submerged.

Store

  1. Scald once a week for 3 weeks, then tie up and store.

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, pickled vegetable that absorbs the brine and vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the cauliflower so it stays firm and crisp.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickle.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Celery seed
Adds a savory, aromatic note to the spiced vinegar.
White mustard
Adds pungent flavor to the spiced vinegar.

The step that matters

Salting and drying the cauliflower. Salt draws out water so the florets stay firm and crisp rather than soft. Brushing off the salt once the cauliflower is dry keeps the pickle from tasting overly salty.

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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