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Cauliflower Au Parmesan

Baked cauliflower topped with white sauce, parmesan cheese, and buttered breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cauliflower Au Parmesan

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cook the cauliflower in boiling salted water until tender, then break it into small florets.

  2. Butter a baking dish and place the cauliflower stems down.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cover the cauliflower with white sauce and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

  2. Top with buttered breadcrumbs and bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown.

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 + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cauliflower + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together138 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

  5. Cauliflower + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, cooked until tender enough to hold its shape.
White sauce
Adds moisture and a creamy texture that coats the cauliflower.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Buttered breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping through butter and dry heat in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. The topping needs enough oven heat to brown properly; underbaking leaves the breadcrumbs pale and the sauce not fully heated through, while overbaking can dry the sauce and harden the cheese.

Swap the cauliflower

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

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce, parmesan cheese. 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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