Skip to main content
Main

Cauliflower Soup

A soup made with cauliflower, onion, ham, celery, stock, milk, and rice flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Cauliflower Soup

Why it works: Celery and cauliflower work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 488 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a pan, fry the onion in butter until light brown.

  2. Add the minced ham and chopped celery, then pour in 1 quart of soup stock.

  3. Simmer slowly for 30 minutes.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the cauliflower in slightly salted water for 25-30 minutes, then drain.

  2. Strain the contents of the frying pan into a saucepan and add another quart of stock.

  3. Rub the drained cauliflower through a fine sieve into the stock and boil once.

  4. Dissolve the rice flour in cold milk and whisk into the soup.

  5. Taste for seasoning, then pour into a hot tureen and serve.

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. Celery + cauliflowertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together488 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

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 soup and, once puréed, gives it a thick, smooth body.
Butter
Fat that browns the onion and carries its flavour into the soup.
Rice flour
Starch that thickens the soup when whisked in and brought to a boil.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the soup's texture.
Onion
Browns in butter to build a sweet, savoury base flavour.

The step that matters

Dissolving the rice flour in cold milk. Starch added straight to hot liquid clumps; dissolving it in cold milk first lets it disperse evenly, so it thickens smoothly when the soup is brought back to a boil.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, ham, celery, rice, flour, milk):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, ham, celery, rice, flour, milk. 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

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipes