Brassica oleracea, Botrytis group, a variety of the common cabbage in which flowers have begun to form but have stopped growing at the bud stage. The same applies to broccoli. The thick stems under the buds act as storage organs for nutrients which would have gone into the flowers and eventual fruits had their development not been aborted. All these varieties are therefore richer in vitamins and minerals than other brassicas.
The tendency to produce a ‘sport’ or freak growth of this kind has been noticed in wild cabbages, so prototypes of the cauliflower may have originated spontaneously in different places. Selective breeding would then have produced the present forms. Be that as it may, the origin of the cauliflower and its relatives is obscure. It is thought that they were first grown in the Near East, but no one is sure when. The belief of Cypriots that the cauliflower originated in Cyprus derives tenuous support from the old French name for it, chou de Chypre (Cyprus cabbage). Jane Grigson (1978), in a charming passage, evokes the idea:
The largest cauliflower I have ever seen, a great curdled depth of white cupped in green leaves, was about 45 cm across. It was so large that the elderly Turk who was carrying it, in the outskirts of Nicosia, could not get his arm right round. Only enough to clamp it to his side, as he shuffled along in his droopy black clothes.
However, she then dismisses the Cypriot claim in favour of the Arabs; and it is generally believed that it was the Arabs who introduced (or reintroduced) the cauliflower to Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Young white cauliflower florets are eaten raw in salads. Cooking a cauliflower whole may require making incisions at the base of the sturdy stem, lest it remain tough while the delicate florets become overcooked. English cooks have often liked to cover a whole cooked cauliflower with a cheese sauce.
The Chinese, for whom the cauliflower is a relatively recent introduction, dismantle the vegetable completely, separate the florets and finely slice the stem, then stir-fry it.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Grigson, Jane (1978), Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book, London: Michael Joseph.
