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Cauliflower Cheese

A baked cauliflower dish with Parmesan, tomatoes, butter, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cauliflower Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the cauliflower until tender, then press it through a sieve.

Assemble

  1. Mix in the grated Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish, then cover with bread crumbs.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

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

  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

Cauliflower
Forms the bulk of the dish, providing the body of the mixture once pressed smooth.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the top brown in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the mixture.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and moisture to the mixture.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, browned topping over the mixture.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. Baking at 400°F (200°C) is what turns the bread crumb topping golden and crisp. Stopping too early leaves it pale and soft, while baking too long can dry the cauliflower beneath.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parmesan cheese, tomato, butter, bread, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, tomato, butter, bread, 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.

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