There are a couple of USDA Pickled Cauliflower recipes. I linked the most common one below. Note the amount of vinegar required to make it safe for shelf storage.

But a couple of your assumptions need to be addressed.

I figure if the authors of all those pickled cauliflower recipes lived long enough to write up their recipes and post them to forums, it can't be all that dangerous.

Not a safe assumption. There is lots of really dangerous canning info out there, both in books and on the web. Canning is not cooking. Web posts and cookbooks carry no liability assurance - it is user beware.

Unlike cooking where the food is consumed immediately, canning requires some science behind it because of what happens, what can grow, in the jar while stored on the shelf.

trusty Joy of Cooking while great as a cookbook, isn't a canning book. Even though many cookbooks carry a section on canning they are not always current or accurate. It is best to stick with specific canning instructions and the Ball canning books as well as NCHFP on line are the recognized authority.

And commercially canned items cannot be compared to home canned items when it comes to safety. Commercial canning requires the use of very different equipment and techniques we just don't have available at home.

Hope this helps answer your questions. If not let us know. And welcome to our forum too!

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Pickled Cauliflower

Are you referring to Joy of Cooking: All About Canning & Preserving by Becker and Rombauer, the recent edition (2002, I think)? I used to have that book. It does follow USDA guidelines.

However, I wonder if you're confusing a statement? I no longer have the book, so I can't be 100% sure, but I believe they were referring to canning plain cauliflower, not pickling. There are a number of root vegetables and cruciform vegetables not recommended. It isn't a safety reason but a quality one as they tend to become bitter in the jar.

There are a number of good safe-tested jardiniere-type pickled mixed vegetable recipes that present no safety concerns. Linda Ziedrich's Joy of Pickling has two. If you're interested in extending your pickling recipes, that's the book I'd recommend as all recipes have been vetted for safety, whether refrigerated or canned.

Carol

Good point Carol. I just assumed from the info that is was the standard cookbook referred to. Ditto agree on the Joy of Pickling recommendation.

You can safely pickle raw cauliflower by fermenting it. It just needs to be refrigerated when the fermentation is finished. I've been doing it for about 3 years.

Thanks to all for your replies, and particularly the recommendations. The book to which I was referring is just the basic Joy of Cooking cookbook, which has a section on canning. It wasn't clear to me in reading their advice against canning cauliflower that it wouldn't apply to pickling.

In the event, I made a batch of this recipe (http://honest-food.net/2011/10/31/pickled-cauliflower/) and it turned out great. I made one small modification: I added some carrots to it. My only complaint is that it said it made four quarts, but even using a large head of cauliflower *and* adding a couple of carrots, I only got two quarts.

Now, I have another potential issue leading to another question. I made it again, this time getting two heads of cauliflower and also adding some chunks of red bell pepper. One of the heads of cauliflower was exceptionally large, and as stated this time I also added some red pepper, so I had five quart jars well packed with the recommended half inch of headspace. I poured the boiling vinegar and water (50/50) over them, leaving about 1/4 inch headspace. I put on the lids and rings, and put them in a 10 minute boiling water bath. When I removed the jars, I saw that this time, the cauliflower was now protruding up out of the liquid, and the level of liquid now appeared to be a good inch below the top of the jars.

My question is, will this be safe to eat? I have a good seal on the lids, and due to cooling, there appears to be some degree of vacuum pressure inside the jars; the lids are fully depressed, rather than having some "pop-up" feel to them.

Safe to eat? As far as the liquid level in the jars is concerned? Yes. Most likely there was some air trapped in the jar that didn't get removed before capping or that the foods absorbed some of the liquid.

The foods suspended above the liquid will darken with time so just pitch them after opening the jars.

However, per the guidelines they are not safe for shelf storage and to eat they must be refrigerated. Your biggest issue is that you are adding low-acid vegetables that were not in the original recipe. So not only are you increasing the ratio of low acid vegetables to vinegar but you are changing the overall pH of the mix - making it less acidic.

The original recipe was only a 1:1 vinegar to water brine anyway and that is considered the minimum required for safety. By adding these other low-acid vegetables you have dropped below the recommended safe pH for shelf storage.

Dave

I looked at a number of recommended pickled cauliflower and pickled carrot recipes as well as mixed vegetable pickles containing cauliflower and carrots.

The lowest ratio of vinegar to water I found was 5:1 with most being 100% vinegar.

One recipe had a 10-minute processing time for quarts, the others ranged upwards.

One big issue with pickling is not packing the vegetables too densely. The pickling solution should freely "bathe" all pieces. For that reason, it's not unusual to have to make more solution than the recipe calls for to cover all vegetables adequately. You also need extra solution because after air bubbles are removed normally the pickling solution level drops and more needs to be added to bring the liquid back up to the recommended headspace.

If the veggies are packed too tight at the center you will have veggies insufficiently acidified and the heat penetration during processing is also inadequate.

Just a heads-up of things to keep in mind.

Carol