Name: Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients: 2 cups cauliflower, chopped; 1 chicken, cooked and shredded; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 cups milk; 1 onion, minced; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Flour, as needed for thickening

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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the cauliflower in salted water for 30 minutes until tender.
In a pot, combine the chicken broth and minced onion; cook until the onion is soft.
Add the boiled cauliflower and milk to the pot.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stir in flour to thicken the soup, then add the butter.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,113 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cauliflower + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together935 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

Swap the cauliflower

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

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Leekfits better
Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, milk, onion, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.