Name: Pickled Cauliflower
Ingredients: 1 head cauliflower; 2 cups vinegar; 2 tablespoons ground mustard seed

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 ↓

Pickled Cauliflower

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower
2 cups vinegar
2 tablespoons ground mustard seed

Directions

Cook the cauliflower

Cook the cauliflower in boiling water until tender.
Place the cooked cauliflower in jars.

Pickle

In a saucepan, scald the vinegar and ground mustard seed together.
Pour the hot vinegar mixture over the cauliflower in the jars.

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.

Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together687 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 bulk of the dish and keeps a firm, tender texture once cooked.
Vinegar: Provides the sharp acidity that defines the pickle and helps preserve it.
Ground mustard seed: Adds the pungent, sharp aroma and flavor that seasons the pickling liquid.