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Pried Cauliflower

A dish of cauliflower pieces boiled, seasoned, coated in a batter of flour, eggs, salt, oil, and brandy, then fried.

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 ↓

Pried Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pick and wash the cauliflower.

  2. Boil in water until two-thirds cooked.

  3. Drain and place in an earthen pan.

  4. Add salt, pepper, and vinegar. Mix well.

Batter and fry

  1. Prepare a batter with flour, eggs, coarse sea salt, sweet oil, and brandy.

  2. Fry the cauliflower in the batter until golden.

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, becoming tender inside while the batter crisps outside.
Flour
Forms the structure of the batter that coats and holds onto the cauliflower.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set and brown in the hot oil.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the batter; alcohol evaporates quickly in hot oil, leaving the flavor behind.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the cauliflower.

The step that matters

Fry the cauliflower in the batter until golden. The oil must be hot enough to set the batter quickly. If it is too cool, the batter absorbs excess oil and turns greasy instead of crisp and golden.

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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