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Cauliflower

A boiled cauliflower served with a butter and egg yolk sauce flavored with lemon and optional nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Remove the green leaves from the cauliflower and soak it in salt water for 2 to 3 hours.

  2. Boil the cauliflower in equal parts milk and water with a little salt for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Drain and place the cauliflower in a dish, adding butter on top.

Make the butter sauce

  1. For the sauce, mix egg yolks and flour into cold milk, adding some of the cauliflower cooking water and lemon juice.

  2. Heat the sauce in a pot over boiling water until it thickens, then pour it over the cauliflower.

  3. Optionally, sprinkle with grated nutmeg before serving.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cauliflower + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together126 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + lemontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together179 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
Is the main vegetable, cooked until tender and carrying the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and give it a rich, smooth body as they set with gentle heat.
Flour
Stabilises the sauce so it thickens smoothly and holds its body when poured.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the cauliflower and sauce.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce and balances its richness.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce and adds mild sweetness and body.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg yolk sauce. Egg yolks set when heated, so the sauce must be heated gently over simmering water and stirred constantly. Overheating can curdle the yolks and leave a grainy texture instead of a smooth, thick sauce.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, milk, butter, egg, flour, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, milk, butter, egg, flour, lemon. 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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