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Stewed Cauliflower

A stew of cauliflower, mushrooms, and egg yolks served over toasted buttered bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stewed Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Select a close and white cauliflower, remove the outer leaves, and break apart the florets.

  2. Wash the cauliflower in cold water, then boil it in a kettle of boiling water with 1 teaspoon of salt for 20-25 minutes until tender.

  3. Carefully lift the cauliflower with a skimmer and place it on toasted and buttered bread slices.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour, and mix well.

  2. Gradually add the stock, stirring continually until it boils; add the chopped mushrooms and cook for a moment longer.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and onion juice.

  4. Pour the sauce around the cauliflower and serve immediately. Do not boil after adding the eggs to prevent curdling.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Bread + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the main body of the stew, providing the bulk and mild flavor of the dish.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavor while being melted into the flour base.
Flour
Combines with melted butter to form a roux that thickens the stock into a sauce.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it comes to a boil.
Mushrooms
Add savory, earthy flavor and a little body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated but curdle if the sauce boils afterward. Removing the pan from heat before stirring them in keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, bread, butter, mushroom, egg, pepper, flour):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, bread, butter, mushroom, egg, pepper, flour. 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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