Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cream of Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cauliflower
Let a cauliflower stand in cold salted water for one hour to draw out any insects.
Bring the cauliflower to a boil in chicken or veal stock, or hot water, with one onion, a sprig of parsley, and a sprig of celery.
When tender, mash the cauliflower through a sieve or potato ricer.
Make the soup
For each cup of cauliflower pulp, prepare a white sauce by stirring two cups of milk into two tablespoonfuls of butter that has had two tablespoonfuls of flour stirred into it, adding one-half teaspoon of salt and a little pepper. Cook the sauce for ten minutes.
Stir in the cauliflower pulp and cook for five minutes.
Add one-half cup of cream. Serve.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cauliflower (in the method)
- Forms the body of the soup, giving it bulk and a smooth texture once mashed.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and milk into a white sauce that gives the soup its body.
- Butter
- Carries the flour and adds richness to the white sauce.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, adding creaminess.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a silkier mouthfeel to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Cooking the sauce before adding the cauliflower. Flour must cook in the butter and milk for the full ten minutes so it thickens fully and loses its raw, pasty taste; a sauce rushed off the heat stays thin or tastes floury.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, milk, butter):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, milk, butter. 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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