Skip to main content
Main

With Olive Oil

A boiled cauliflower dish flavored with sautéed onions and olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,779 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

With Olive Oil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Boil the cauliflower until half cooked.

  2. Strain the cauliflower.

  3. Cut the cauliflower into walnut-sized pieces.

Cook

  1. Heat the olive oil in a suitable vessel.

  2. Fry the chopped onions until light brown.

  3. Add a little water.

  4. Add the cauliflower pieces.

  5. Season to taste.

  6. Simmer on low heat until well done.

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. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cauliflower + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together935 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 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 bulk of the dish and softens into tender pieces as it simmers.
Olive oil
Carries heat for frying the onions and adds richness and flavour to the dish.
Onions
Browning during frying builds sweetness and savoury depth in the base.

The step that matters

Simmer on low heat until well done. Gentle heat lets the cauliflower cook through evenly and soften without breaking apart or scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, olive, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, olive, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Cauliflower SoupCauliflower Soup28 recipesCream of Cauliflower SoupCream of Cauliflower Soup22 recipesCreamed CauliflowerCreamed Cauliflower17 recipesEscalloped CauliflowerEscalloped Cauliflower9 recipes