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Souffl& of Cauliflower

A baked cauliflower soufflé with a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Souffl& of Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Clean the cauliflower.

  2. Soak the cauliflower in cold water and vinegar for 15 minutes.

  3. Drain the cauliflower.

  4. Boil the cauliflower in salted boiling water for 15 minutes.

  5. Drain the cauliflower thoroughly.

  6. Press the cauliflower through a fine sieve.

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter the inner walls of a mold thickly.

  2. Dredge the mold with flour, coating all sides and bottom evenly.

Make the soufflé base

  1. Melt 2 oz. of butter in a small saucepan.

  2. Stir in 2 oz. of flour over low heat without browning.

  3. Gradually add 1 cup of boiling milk.

  4. Season the mixture with salt.

  5. Boil the mixture for 5 minutes while stirring constantly.

  6. Add the cauliflower puree to the mixture.

  7. Beat the egg yolks and mix them into the mixture.

  8. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  9. Pour the mixture into the mold.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes, covering with buttered paper if it browns too quickly.

  2. Blend some of the cauliflower cooking water with additional ingredients to make a White Sauce.

  3. Stir in ½ cup of whipped cream just before serving.

  4. Turn out the soufflé onto a hot dish.

  5. Serve the sauce in a sauceboat.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 bulk of the soufflé, adding body, moisture and mild flavour.
Egg whites
Whipped air that lifts the mixture and gives the soufflé its risen, light structure.
Egg yolks
Enrich the base and add richness, helping it set into a tender custard-like texture.
Flour
Cooked with butter and milk to thicken the base so it holds the cauliflower and air.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the thickened base, giving a smooth, creamy texture.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a smooth, fat-based texture to the sauce served alongside.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold the air that makes a soufflé rise. Stirring or mixing vigorously deflates the foam, so the soufflé bakes up flat and dense.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, butter, flour, milk, egg, cream, sauce):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, butter, flour, milk, egg, cream, sauce. 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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