Name: Pickling
Ingredients: large fresh cauliflowers; salt; whole finger; slices of horseradish; peeled garlic

Why it works: Cauliflower and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 139 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pickling

Ingredients

Directions

Cut large fresh cauliflowers into small pieces and wash them clean.
Sprinkle plenty of salt over the cauliflower and let it sit for three days.
Drain the cauliflower and lay it out in the sun to dry, turning it frequently until almost brown, which may take several days.
Once dried, add whole finger, slices of horseradish, and peeled garlic.

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 + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together139 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Horseradish + garlictop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together719 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cauliflower + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together124 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).