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Cauliflower Au Gratin

A baked cauliflower dish topped with a cheese sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cauliflower Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Cook the cauliflower

  1. Boil the cauliflower until tender, then drain and place it upright on a serving dish.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then whisk in the flour and gradually add the milk to make a sauce.

  2. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, and cayenne, then stir in the grated cheese, reserving 1 tablespoon of cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the cheese sauce over the cauliflower and sprinkle the reserved cheese on top.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until nicely browned on top, then garnish with parsley.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 holds its shape under the sauce.
Milk
Liquid base that, with the flour, thickens into a smooth sauce.
Butter
Fat that carries flavor and helps form a smooth roux with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce by gelatinizing starch when heated.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce for richness and savory flavor, and browns on top.

The step that matters

Add the milk gradually to the butter and flour. Adding liquid slowly while whisking lets the flour starch disperse evenly, preventing lumps. A smooth base thickens evenly into a silky sauce instead of a grainy one.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, pepper, 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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