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Cauliflower and Potato Pie

A baked pie made with boiled cauliflower, boiled potatoes, milk, eggs, wheatmeal, cheese, butter, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 and Potato Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut up the cauliflower and potatoes.

  2. Sprinkle half the cheese between the vegetables.

Make the batter

  1. Make a batter with the milk, eggs, and wheatmeal, then add pepper and salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the vegetables in a pie dish and pour the batter over them.

  2. Cut the butter into small pieces and place on top of the pie.

  3. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over everything and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard around the vegetables.
Wheatmeal
Thickens the milk and egg batter so it holds together and sets in the pie.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the batter, giving a soft, custard-like texture when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top brown and the pie taste rounded.
Cheese
Melts into the pie and adds savoury flavour and golden browning on top.

The step that matters

Pour the batter over the vegetables evenly. The batter is what sets into the custard. If it is unevenly spread or the vegetables are packed too tightly, some areas stay watery or loose while others set firm.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, milk, egg, butter, cheese, 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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