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Scalloped Cauliflower

A baked cauliflower dish topped with a breadcrumb and butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Scalloped Cauliflower

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 the cauliflower

  1. Clean the cauliflower and soak it in salt water for 1 hour.

  2. Boil the cauliflower in salt water until tender.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the cauliflower in a buttered dish with the stem down.

  2. In a bowl, mix the bread crumbs, beaten egg, melted butter, cream, salt, and pepper to make a sauce.

  3. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower.

  4. Cover the dish tightly.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes.

  6. Remove the lid.

  7. Brown the top nicely.

  8. Serve hot in the baking dish.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cauliflower + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the base of the dish, becoming tender when boiled and holding the sauce.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the cream and butter to form a thick topping that browns in the oven.
Egg
Binds the sauce so it sets lightly rather than running off the cauliflower.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the crumb topping brown.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the sauce, keeping the topping from drying out.

The step that matters

Covering, then uncovering to brown. Covering the dish traps steam so the cauliflower heats through and the egg sauce sets gently. Removing the lid lets the surface dry and brown, which is what gives the crumb topping its colour and flavour.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, cream, egg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, cream, egg, 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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