Name: Cauliflower with Parmesan
Ingredients: 1 cauliflower; white sauce; grated Parmesan cheese

Why it works: Cauliflower and parmesan cheese work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 138 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflower with Parmesan

Ingredients

1 cauliflower
white sauce
grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Boil the cauliflower until tender, then drain it on a sieve.
Trim the stalks so the cauliflower stands upright on a dish.
Place the cauliflower in a saucepan with a little white sauce and simmer until fully cooked.
Transfer the cauliflower to a serving dish, pour the sauce around it, and sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top.
Brown the top with a salamander or under a broiler.

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.

Cauliflower + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together138 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,294 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).
Cauliflower + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together463 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).