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Mayonnaise of Cauliflower

Boiled cauliflower seasoned with pepper, vinegar, oil, and served with mayonnaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Mayonnaise of Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Cook and marinate

  1. Boil the cauliflower in water with salt and butter until tender.

  2. Remove from heat and let it cool.

  3. Season with pepper, vinegar, and oil; let it marinate for 1 hour.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, arrange the cauliflower on a dish in a pointed shape.

  2. Cover the cauliflower with mayonnaise sauce 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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together888 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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 and stays firm when cooked until tender.
Butter
Adds richness and a mild, savoury flavour to the cooking water.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the cauliflower and balances the rich mayonnaise.
Oil
Adds fat that carries the seasonings and gives the cauliflower a smoother mouthfeel.
Mayonnaise sauce
Adds creamy richness and a tangy finish over the cooled cauliflower.

The step that matters

Let the cauliflower cool before seasoning. Seasoning while the cauliflower is still hot can make it release water and soften further, so cooling first helps it keep its texture and absorb the vinegar and oil evenly during the marinade.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, vinegar, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, vinegar, sauce. 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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