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Cauliflower Puree

A smooth cauliflower puree made with white sauce, nutmeg, sugar, cream, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 126 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflower Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut cauliflower into small pieces and boil in salted water until soft.

  2. Drain cauliflower and place it in a saucepan with white sauce.

Make the puree

  1. Add nutmeg, sugar, and cream, then mix well.

  2. Rub mixture through a colander.

  3. If puree is too thick, add sealed milk until desired consistency is reached.

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. Cauliflower + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together126 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Nutmeg + creamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the bulk of the puree and gives it its body and mild flavour.
White sauce
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the puree.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a smoother mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness to balance the cauliflower's natural bitterness.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through a colander. Pressing the cooked cauliflower through a colander breaks down fibres and removes lumps, so the puree becomes smooth. Skipping or rushing this step leaves a grainy texture.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, nutmeg, sugar, cream, milk):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, nutmeg, sugar, cream, milk. 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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