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Cauliflowers Fried

Fried cauliflower coated in a batter of flour, eggs, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,113 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflowers Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and wash the cauliflower.

  2. Boil in salted water until three-quarters cooked.

  3. Drain and place in an earthen pan.

  4. Add salt, pepper, and vinegar; mix well.

Batter and fry

  1. In a bowl, combine flour, eggs, salt, oil, and brandy to make a batter.

  2. Dip the cauliflower in the batter and fry until golden brown.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

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

  2. Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together888 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish, cooked until tender before frying.
All-purpose flour
Forms the base of the batter, helping it cling to the cauliflower.
Eggs
Add structure and binding to the batter so it coats the cauliflower.
Brandy
Adds a light aroma to the batter.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the cauliflower's flavour.

The step that matters

Dip the cauliflower in the batter and fry until golden brown.. Frying at a steady heat browns the batter into a crisp coating while the cauliflower inside finishes cooking. Too little heat leaves the batter greasy, and too much burns it before the cauliflower is heated through.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, flour, egg, brandy):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, flour, egg, brandy. 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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