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 ↓
Cauliflower with Cheese Au Gratin
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the cauliflower
Cook the cauliflower in boiling salted water until tender.
Separate the cauliflower into florets and place them stems down in ramekins.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, melt the butter and cook the flour, salt, and paprika for 1-2 minutes.
Add the milk and stir until the sauce boils.
Stir in the grated cheese until melted.
Pour a little sauce over the cauliflower in each ramekin.
Bake and serve
Mix the cracker crumbs with the melted butter and sprinkle over the cauliflower and sauce.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the crumbs are browned.
Serve in the ramekins as a vegetable entree.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,962 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,426 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together569 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 main body of the dish and becomes tender when cooked in water.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and coats the crumbs, helping them brown in the oven.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the butter.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce that coats the cauliflower.
- Grated cheese
- Melts into the sauce, adding richness and savory flavor.
- Cracker crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned topping when baked with melted butter.
The step that matters
Cooking the flour in butter before adding the milk. Cooking the butter and flour together for a minute or two cooks off raw starch taste and lets the flour thicken the milk smoothly when it boils, rather than leaving lumps or a pasty flavor.
Swap the cauliflower
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, cheese):
- Potatofits better
- Chivefits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Cauliflowerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, 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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