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
Prepare the cauliflower
Cut cauliflower before they are too blown on a dry day.
Strip off the leaves and quarter the stalk.
Scald the cauliflower in salt and water without boiling.
Cover to cool and retain color.
Sprinkle with salt and water.
Place in a colander for 24 hours to drain.
When dry, cut out the thick stalk or divide it if large.
Boil and split the flower into 8 or 10 pieces.
Pickle and jar
Carefully place the pieces into jars.
Cover with cold vinegar boiled with spices.
Alternatively, boil the cauliflower in salt and vinegar.
Remove immediately.
Place in cold vinegar boiled with spices.
For the spice mix, use 2 oz. each of coriander seeds and turmeric, 1 oz. each of mustard seeds and ginger, and 1 oz. each of mace or nutmeg or cinnamon for every 3 quarts of vinegar.
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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Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,776 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Cauliflower + turmerictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together514 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Coriander + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,505 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
-
Coriander + turmerictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,253 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Cauliflower + mustardtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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
- Cauliflowers
- Forms the pickled vegetable itself, providing the main texture of the finished dish.
- Cold vinegar
- Provides the sour acidity that preserves and flavours the pickle.
- Coriander seeds
- Adds warm, citrusy aroma to the spiced pickling liquid.
- Turmeric
- Gives the pickle its yellow colour and an earthy, slightly bitter flavour.
- Mustard seeds
- Contribute pungent, sharp flavour that carries into the vinegar.
The step that matters
Scalding the cauliflower without boiling. Heating the cauliflower in salted water just below boiling softens it enough to take up brine and vinegar while keeping its firm texture and colour. Boiling it fully would make it mushy and dull, so the pieces should be pulled out promptly.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, vinegar, coriander, turmeric, mustard, ginger):
- Cuminfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, vinegar, coriander, turmeric, mustard, ginger. 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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