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Choux-fleurs a LA Sauce Blanche

Cauliflower cooked in a creamy white sauce with butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Choux-fleurs a LA Sauce Blanche

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cauliflower

  1. Boil salted water in a pot.

  2. Add the cauliflower and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.

  3. Remove the cauliflower and let it drain.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour, nutmeg, salt, and pepper until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Mix in the parsley and pour the sauce over the cauliflower.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Cauliflower + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together233 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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 dish and becomes tender when boiled.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as its starch swells with heat.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats with flour.

The step that matters

Add the milk gradually while stirring constantly. Adding milk slowly while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, flour, butter, nutmeg, milk, parsley):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, flour, butter, nutmeg, milk, parsley. 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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