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Salad

Cauliflower in Mayonnaise

A chilled cauliflower salad topped with mayonnaise and optional seafood garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Cauliflower in Mayonnaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflowers

  1. Trim the cauliflowers, cutting the stems to allow them to stand properly.

  2. Blanch and cook the cauliflowers in boiling salted water until tender but not mushy.

  3. Once cooked, strain and let them cool completely.

Dress and garnish

  1. Place the cauliflowers upright on a dish and cover them completely with rich mayonnaise.

  2. Garnish with triangles of tomato aspic, chopped uncolored aspic, and heaps of cold cooked vegetables tossed in olive oil and vinegar.

  3. Add filleted anchovies, prawns, crayfish tails, and capers if desired.

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. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Cauliflower + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Olive + caperstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,688 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Tomato + caperstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cauliflower + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together91 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflowers
Form the main body of the salad, served whole and upright.
Rich mayonnaise
Coats the cauliflowers, adding richness, fat and a creamy texture.
Tomato aspic
Adds a gelled, savoury garnish that holds its shape on the dish.

The step that matters

Cooking the cauliflowers until tender but not mushy. Overcooking breaks down the cell walls and makes the cauliflower soft and watery, so it cannot hold its shape under the mayonnaise. Undercooking leaves it firm and raw-tasting. Draining and cooling completely stops further cooking and keeps the florets intact.

Swap the capers

The recipe marks capers as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, tomato, olive, vinegar, crayfish):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Capersthe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, tomato, olive, vinegar, crayfish. 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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