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Cauliflower Sauce

A creamy sauce made from boiled cauliflower, onion, celery, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflower Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil the cauliflower in 2 pots of water, changing the water when half done and discarding the first.

  2. Reserve 1 teacup of the last water, then drain and mince the cauliflower.

  3. In another saucepan, cook the minced onion and celery until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the reserved cup of water in a saucepan and add the milk.

  2. When warm, add the minced cauliflower and onion, butter, and seasonings, coating the butter thickly with flour.

  3. Boil until the sauce thickens.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Cauliflower + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together488 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. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Butter
Melts into the liquid and, with flour, gives the sauce richness and body.
Flour
Coats the butter and thickens the liquid as it boils, giving the sauce its body.
Cauliflower
Minced and cooked into the sauce, adding bulk and a mild vegetable flavor and texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and adds creaminess and sweetness.
Onion
Softened and added to the sauce, contributing savory aroma and sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil until the sauce thickens. Flour-thickened sauces need to boil so the starch granules swell and set; stopping early leaves the sauce thin and floury-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, butter, flour, onion, celery, pepper, milk):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, butter, flour, onion, celery, pepper, 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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