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Cauliflower

A cauliflower dish topped with a sauce of butter, egg yolks, flour, meat soup, lemon juice, and optional nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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. Prepare the cauliflower and cut it into florets.

  2. In a pot, combine boiling water and milk, then add salt and butter.

  3. Add the cauliflower and cook until tender but firm.

Make the egg sauce

  1. In a bowl, mix egg yolks, flour, cold meat soup, and a little of the cauliflower cooking water.

  2. Add lemon juice and heat the mixture in a pot of boiling water until it thickens.

Serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the arranged cauliflower in a serving dish.

  2. Sprinkle with grated nutmeg if desired.

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
Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender while staying firm when cooked.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set with gentle heat and add richness.
Flour
Helps thicken the sauce and keeps it smooth rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body to the cooking liquid and sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the egg sauce until it thickens. Egg yolks set at moderate heat and can curdle or turn grainy if overheated. Heat gently and stir constantly so the sauce thickens smoothly.

Swap the nutmeg

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