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Brussels Sprouts with Cheese Sauce

A baked dish of Brussels sprouts topped with cheese cream sauce and browned bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Brussels Sprouts with Cheese Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Wash the Brussels sprouts carefully.

  2. Boil the sprouts in plenty of water until tender, then drain them without breaking.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the drained sprouts in a serving dish.

  2. Pour the cheese cream sauce over the sprouts.

  3. Sprinkle browned bread crumbs on top.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 10 minutes.

  5. Serve very hot.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Brussels sprouts
Form the main body of the dish and give a tender, slightly sweet vegetable base.
Cheese cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness, coating the sprouts and carrying the cheese flavor.
Bread crumbs
Toast and brown in the oven, adding a crisp, golden top layer over the soft sauce.

The step that matters

Drain the sprouts without breaking them. Overboiled sprouts turn soft and fall apart, and rough handling tears their leaves. Draining them well also stops excess water from thinning the cheese sauce.

Swap the brussels sprouts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, cream, sauce, bread):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream, sauce, bread. 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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