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Cauliflower Salad

A salad of boiled cauliflower mixed with mayonnaise and garnished with parsley or chives.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 233 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflower Salad

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the cauliflower until tender, then transfer it to cold water until completely cooled.

  2. Break the cauliflower into small florets.

  3. Place the florets on a soft, dry towel to absorb excess water.

  4. Arrange the cauliflower in a salad bowl, cover with mayonnaise, and garnish with chopped parsley or chives before serving.

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 + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together233 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 main body of the salad, providing the bulk and mild flavour.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and creaminess, coating the florets and carrying moisture and flavour.

The step that matters

Drying the florets. Excess water left on the cauliflower after cooling dilutes the mayonnaise and makes the salad watery. Blotting the florets on a dry towel keeps the dressing thick and clinging.

“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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