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Cauliflower Pickles

Pickled cauliflower preserved in a vinegar and mustard brine with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cauliflower Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Choose fine, full-sized cauliflower and remove all leaves.

  2. Soak cauliflower in brine for two days, then drain.

Pack and seal

  1. Place cauliflower in bottles with whole black pepper, allspice, and stick cinnamon.

  2. Optionally, add prepared small white onions before pouring the vinegar.

  3. Boil vinegar and mix in mustard until smooth and thick enough to pour.

  4. Pour the vinegar mixture over the cold cauliflower and seal while hot.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Allspice + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the crisp, firm pickled vegetable that is the main body of the dish.
Brine
Draws out moisture and seasons the cauliflower before it is packed and pickled.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cauliflower and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard
Thickens the vinegar mixture and adds pungent, sharp flavour.
Whole black pepper
Adds warm, sharp spice that flavours the pickling liquid and cauliflower.

The step that matters

Pour the vinegar mixture over the cold cauliflower and seal while hot. Pouring hot vinegar over cold cauliflower and sealing while hot helps create a vacuum seal as the jar cools. Keeping the vegetables fully submerged in the acidic liquid helps prevent spoilage.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, egg, pepper, allspice, cinnamon, vinegar, mustard):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, egg, pepper, allspice, cinnamon, vinegar, mustard. 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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