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A baked dish of white fish, potato, and custard with creamed cauliflower and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and cauliflower work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 488 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the components

  1. Heat the beef broth and celery broth together.

  2. Broil, boil, or bake the white fish until cooked through.

  3. Bake the potato until tender.

  4. Combine the stewed cauliflower with cream in a small saucepan and heat gently.

Make the custard

  1. Whisk the egg and mix with a pinch of cinnamon.

  2. Bake the egg mixture in a custard cup until set.

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. Celery + cauliflowertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together488 recipes

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

  2. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

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

  3. Celery + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Cauliflower + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together123 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Sets when heated, giving the custard its firm, sliceable structure.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the cauliflower.
White potato
Provides starch and body, giving the dish a soft, substantial texture.

The step that matters

Bake the egg mixture in a custard cup until set. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and can turn rubbery or curdle if overcooked, so the custard should be removed once just firm.

Swap the cinnamon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, fish, potato, cauliflower, cream, egg):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, fish, potato, cauliflower, cream, egg. 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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