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To Pickle Cauliflowers

A method for pickling cauliflower in a spiced vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

To Pickle Cauliflowers

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the cauliflower

  1. Cut off the thick stalk of the cauliflower and split the flower into 8-10 pieces.

  2. Spread the cauliflower pieces on a large dish.

  3. Sprinkle the pieces with salt.

  4. Let the pieces stand for 24 hours.

  5. Wash off the salt from the cauliflower pieces.

  6. Drain the cauliflower pieces.

Brine and dry

  1. Place the drained pieces in a broad flat jar.

  2. Prepare a brine with ¼ pound of salt in 1 quart of water.

  3. Cover the cauliflower with the brine.

  4. Let the cauliflower sit in the brine until the next day.

  5. Drain the cauliflower in a sieve.

  6. Spread the cauliflower on a cloth to dry for a day and a night.

Make the pickle and seal

  1. In a mortar, combine and pound the coriander seed, turmeric, mustard seed, and ginger to a fine powder.

  2. Mix the powder with 3 quarts of white wine vinegar.

  3. Let the mixture infuse by the fire for 3 days.

  4. Pour the infused vinegar over the cauliflower, ensuring it is fully covered.

  5. Seal the jars tightly.

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. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cauliflower + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together514 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Coriander + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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 absorbs the spiced vinegar.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out water from the cauliflower, firming its texture and helping it stay crisp.
White wine vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the cauliflower and carries the spice flavours.
Coriander seed
Adds a warm, citrusy aroma to the infused vinegar.
Mustard seed
Adds pungent, sharp flavour that infuses into the vinegar.
Turmeric
Gives the pickle its yellow colour and a mild earthy flavour.

The step that matters

Drying the salted cauliflower before pickling. Salt draws water out of the cauliflower, and the pieces must dry fully before the vinegar goes on. Leftover moisture dilutes the vinegar and encourages spoilage, while thorough drying lets the pieces stay firm and take up the pickling liquid evenly.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, coriander, turmeric, mustard, white wine, vinegar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, coriander, turmeric, mustard, white wine, vinegar. 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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