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Breaded Cauliflower

Breaded cauliflower is a boiled cauliflower mixed with bread crumbs, eggs, and seasonings, then baked in a water bath.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Breaded Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Trim the leaves and wash the cauliflower well.

  2. In 4 quarts of boiling water, add 1 teaspoon salt and ½ cup flour.

  3. Boil the cauliflower in this mixture for 45 minutes.

  4. Drain the cauliflower and pass it through a colander.

Make the mixture

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in warm milk, then squeeze and pass through a colander.

  2. In a mixing bowl, combine the cauliflower, soaked bread crumbs, 3 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon butter, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

  3. Mix well and gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a quart mold and pour the mixture into it.

  2. Place the mold in a saucepan of boiling water, ensuring the water comes within ½ inch of the top of the mold.

  3. Cook for 40 minutes, then remove from water.

  4. Cover the mold with a warm plate and turn it over to serve.

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

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

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

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

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  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 gives it its main body and mild flavor.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they add moisture and a soft, tender body to the mixture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help bind it as it sets.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in, they add lightness and help the mixture set airy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a smoother texture and flavor.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten egg whites trap air, which gives lift. Folding gently keeps that air in, so stirring hard would deflate the mixture and make it dense.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, bread, milk, egg, butter, 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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