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Dessert

Baked Cauliflower

A baked cauliflower dish topped with sauce, breadcrumbs, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and parmesan cheese work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 577 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Baked Cauliflower

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Boil the cauliflower until tender, then drain it on a napkin.

  2. Prepare a thick sauce and let it cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Arrange the cauliflower on a serving dish and cover it with the sauce.

  2. Sprinkle bread crumbs and grated Parmesan cheese on top.

  3. Bake in a very hot oven at 400°F (200°C), placing the dish on a baking tin covered with a finger-deep layer of ashes or salt.

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. Bread + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together577 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cauliflower + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  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).

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.
Thick sauce
Adds moisture and richness that coats the cauliflower as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping as they brown in the oven.
Grated parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Draining the cauliflower well. Water left on boiled cauliflower dilutes the sauce and softens the bread crumb topping, so it should be drained thoroughly on a napkin before assembling.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, bread, 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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