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Cream-of-Cauliflower Soup

A creamy soup made from cauliflower, onion, butter, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Cream-of-Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the soup

  1. Cut the cauliflower into florets and rinse.

  2. In a pot, melt the butter and sauté the onion until translucent.

  3. Add the cauliflower and water, then bring to a boil.

  4. Simmer until the cauliflower is tender, about 15 minutes.

Blend and serve

  1. Blend the mixture until smooth, then stir in the milk.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and heat through before serving.

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

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

  3. Cauliflower + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together935 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 soup and, once cooked and blended, gives it its creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and carries the flavor of the sautéed onion.
Onion
Softens as it cooks and adds savory, aromatic sweetness to the base.
Milk
Adds moisture and mild richness, smoothing out the blended soup.

The step that matters

Simmer until the cauliflower is tender. Cauliflower that is not fully softened will blend unevenly and leave a grainy texture, so it should be cooked through before blending.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, milk, pepper. 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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