Why it works: Cauliflower and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 888 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
To Pickle Cauliflowers
Ingredients
Directions
Cut cauliflowers before they are too mature on a dry day.
Boil them in salt and water until tender.
Lay them to cool, covering them to retain color.
Once cool, place them in jars and cover with cold vinegar boiled with spices.
Alternatively, boil cauliflowers in salt and vinegar, then immediately transfer to cold vinegar boiled with spices.
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.
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Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together888 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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