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Cauliflower Soup

A creamy cauliflower soup made with chicken stock, egg yolks, cream, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cauliflower Soup

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the cauliflower in chicken stock for 20 minutes.

  2. Remove the cauliflower and set aside some of the best parts.

  3. Pass the remainder through a sieve.

  4. Mix the egg yolks and cream, then add to the soup.

  5. Return the mixture to a saucepan and stir over low heat until it begins to thicken.

Serve

  1. Place the reserved cauliflower pieces in a tureen and pour the soup over them.

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 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 body of the soup and, once sieved, gives it a smooth, thick texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup when gently heated and add richness.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel, and helps the yolks blend smoothly.
Chicken stock
Cooks the cauliflower and provides the main liquid and savory flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounder flavor.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until it begins to thicken. Egg yolks set at around 70°C (158°F). Above that they scramble, leaving lumps and a grainy texture, so the soup must be heated gently and stirred constantly.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, chicken, pepper, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, chicken, pepper, butter. 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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