Why it works: Cauliflower and tomato work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 91 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Cauliflower, Moulded, with Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the cauliflowers in a mixture of thin flour and water until tender, about 15 to 25 minutes.
Cut off the stalks and press the cauliflower's head down into a hot basin.
Turn the cauliflower into a tureen and pour the tomato or piquante sauce around it.
Arrange the stalks neatly around the cauliflower to resemble one large cauliflower.
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.
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Cauliflower + tomatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together91 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together569 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + tomatotop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,065 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
- Cauliflowers
- Form the main body of the dish, holding their shape when pressed into a mould.
- Thin flour
- Thickens the cooking water so it lightly coats the cauliflower as it boils.
- Tomato sauce or piquante sauce
- Adds moisture and acidity, pooled around the cauliflower for flavour.
The step that matters
Pressing the cauliflower into the basin. The cauliflower must be tender enough to hold its shape but firm enough not to break. Pressing it while hot lets the florets fuse and set into a single mould when cooled, so it should be done promptly after boiling and stalk removal.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, flour):
- Turnipfits better
- Broccolifits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, flour. 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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