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Cauliflower Escalloped with Cheese

A baked cauliflower dish topped with a cheese sauce and buttered crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Cauliflower Escalloped with Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Remove leaves and stalk from the cauliflower and separate it into flowerets.

  2. Soak the flowerets in cold water for 30 minutes.

  3. Cook the cauliflower in boiling salted water for 20 minutes or until soft.

  4. Drain the cauliflower and set aside.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter, then stir in 3 tablespoons of flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add 1½ cups of milk, stirring until the sauce thickens.

  3. Stir in ½ cup of grated cheese until melted.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the cheese sauce over the cauliflower in a buttered baking dish.

  2. Sprinkle the top with buttered crumbs.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crumbs are 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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 becomes tender when boiled.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Enriches the roux and adds richness to the sauce and crumbs.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce to add savory flavor and creaminess.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must be cooked in the melted butter and milk added gradually while stirring, so the starch swells evenly and the sauce thickens without lumps.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, pepper, milk, cheese. 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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