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Cauliflower Pickle

Cauliflower preserved in a spiced vinegar and mustard sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 514 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cauliflower Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Cut the cauliflower close to the stalk into small pieces.

  2. Place in a dish and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 3 days, then pour off the liquid.

  3. Steam the cauliflower until nearly soft.

Make the pickle sauce

  1. Heat the vinegar until scalding hot, then add mustard, cayenne, paprika, and turmeric mixed with a little cold vinegar, and boil.

  2. Thicken the mixture with flour and pour over the cauliflower.

  3. Bottle for use.

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 + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Turmeric + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + turmerictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Turmeric + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,637 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the pickle's main body and keeps its bite after the salting and steaming.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out liquid from the cauliflower over three days, firming its texture and preserving it.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the pickle and gives it its sharp flavor.
Mustard
Adds sharp pungent flavor that complements the vinegar.
Flour
Thickens the hot vinegar mixture so it coats the cauliflower rather than running off.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with flour and pour over the cauliflower. Flour must be stirred in while the liquid is hot and boiling so its starch swells and thickens evenly. Added to cold or unboiled liquid, it stays lumpy and fails to coat the cauliflower.

Swap the cauliflower

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Cauliflowerthe original
  4. Lettucefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, turmeric, mustard, flour. 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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