Skip to main content
Main

Cauliflower, with Cheese

A baked cauliflower dish topped with a cheese sauce and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Cauliflower, with Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Boil the cauliflower in salted water until tender.

  2. Place the cauliflower in a baking dish.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add the milk, stirring until the sauce thickens.

  3. Mix in the grated cheese until melted.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the cheese sauce over the cauliflower.

  2. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for ten minutes.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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 when boiled.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and combines with flour to form the roux.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce when cooked with the butter.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cheese sauce, which thickens as it cooks.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce to add rich flavor and a creamy texture.
Bread crumbs
Adds a crisp topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Thickening the roux and milk. Flour must cook briefly in the melted butter before milk is added, and the milk must be added gradually while stirring. This keeps the sauce smooth and lets the starch thicken it evenly rather than forming lumps.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, cheese, 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes