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Cauliflower Au Gratin

A baked cauliflower dish topped with cheese and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cauliflower 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.

Prepare

  1. Cook the cauliflower until tender.

  2. Drain the cauliflower well.

  3. Remove the florets.

  4. Tear the remaining cauliflower into pieces with a fork.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the cauliflower pieces in a deep dish.

  2. Sprinkle the dish with salt, pepper, grated cheese, and moistened bread crumbs.

  3. Add the cauliflower florets on top.

  4. Sprinkle the top with salt, pepper, and cheese.

  5. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until slightly 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.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Cauliflower + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together223 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 bulk of the dish and turns soft and tender when cooked.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding richness and a golden crust.
Dried bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they add moisture and a crisp, browned topping.

The step that matters

Bake until slightly brown. Baking only until lightly browned keeps the cauliflower tender and the cheese from turning bitter or dry. Watching colour rather than time helps the top brown evenly without overbaking the dish.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cheese, bread, 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.

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