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Cauliflower Pickles

A pickled cauliflower dish preserved in a vinegar and mustard brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cauliflower Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pickle

  1. Beat together the eggs, brown sugar, French mustard, ginger, and turmeric until well combined.

  2. Boil the mixture in vinegar with garlic and green peppers for 10 minutes.

Pack and seal

  1. Boil the cauliflower in salted water until tender.

  2. Carefully place the cauliflower in jars.

  3. Pour the boiling mixture over the cauliflower.

  4. Seal 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.

  1. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Cauliflower + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 pickle and stays firm when cooked until tender.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavour.
Brown sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness and adds depth to the liquid.
Eggs
Thicken the sweet pickling mixture as they cook, giving it a richer body.
French mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavour that complements the vinegar and sugar.
Turmeric
Colours the pickle a bright yellow and adds an earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs into the mixture before boiling. Eggs can curdle or scramble if they meet heat without being thoroughly combined with the sugar and mustard first. Beating them until smooth helps the mixture thicken evenly as it heats.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, egg, mustard, ginger, clove):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, vinegar, sugar, egg, mustard, ginger, clove. 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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