Skip to main content
Main

Escalloped Cauliflower

A cauliflower dish baked with cream sauce and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Escalloped Cauliflower

Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Escalloped Cauliflower

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 the cauliflower

  1. Cut the cauliflower into flowerettes.

  2. Cover with boiling water in a saucepan and cook until tender.

  3. Drain in a colander while preparing the sauce.

Make the sauce

  1. Make a cream sauce enough to cover the cauliflower.

  2. Add 2 heaping tablespoons of cheese to the sauce.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the flowerettes in a baking dish and pour the sauce over them.

  2. Sprinkle a little cheese on top and bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes to 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + parmesan cheesetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,566 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  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 cooked in boiling water.
Cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness, coating the cauliflower and keeping it from drying out.
American edam or grated parmesan cheese
Melts into the sauce and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and colour.

The step that matters

Baking to brown the top. Only a few minutes in the oven is stated, so the cheese can brown without the sauce drying out or the cauliflower overcooking; watch it closely.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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.

You might also like

Macaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCheese MakingCheese Making50 recipesCheese FrittersCheese Fritters34 recipesCheese OmeletteCheese Omelette31 recipes