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 ↓
Cauliflowers or Broccoli
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetable
Choose a firm, ripe cauliflower or broccoli and cut away the leaves and stalks.
In a stew-pan, combine 1 quart of water with ¼ pound of coarse sea salt and bring to a boil.
Add the cauliflower or broccoli and let it heat gradually; once boiling, remove it with a slotted spoon.
Spread the vegetable on a cloth to dry for at least 24 hours by the fire.
Pickle and store
Once dry, place the pieces in jars and cover with a pickle made by infusing 3 ounces of curry powder in 1 quart of vinegar for three days.
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
What each ingredient does
- Cauliflower or broccoli
- Forms the firm vegetable body that holds its texture through pickling.
- Curry powder
- Gives the pickle its spiced aroma and yellow colour as it infuses.
- Vinegar
- Provides the acidity that preserves the vegetable and sharpens the flavour.
The step that matters
Drying the vegetable before pickling. Water left on the pieces dilutes the vinegar and weakens the pickle, so the vegetable must be thoroughly dry before it goes into the jars.
“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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