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Cauliflower with Cheese

A baked cauliflower dish topped with melted butter, egg, and aged cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cauliflower with Cheese

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. Boil the cauliflower until very tender.

  2. In a bowl, stir the melted butter and beaten egg together.

  3. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle the grated cheese generously on top.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

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

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Cauliflower + cheesetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Cauliflower + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together823 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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, holding the sauce and cheese.
Egg
Sets when baked, binding the butter sauce so it firms up around the cauliflower.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and keeping the sauce moist.
Aged cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Bake until browned. Egg proteins set as they heat, so the sauce turns firm and custardy. Overbaking can cause it to curdle, turn rubbery, or dry out, so watch for browning rather than baking by time alone.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, 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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