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Cauliflower Au Gratin

A baked cauliflower dish topped with cream sauce and grated cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cauliflower Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Trim the outer leaves from the cauliflower and tie it in cheesecloth.

  2. Boil in well-salted water for 20-30 minutes until tender.

  3. Drain and separate the cauliflower into small florets.

  4. Place the florets in a baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour cream sauce over the cauliflower and sprinkle with grated cheese.

  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. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  3. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Cauliflower + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 gratin and holds its shape once cooked until tender.
Cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness that keeps the cauliflower from drying out in the oven.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Boil until tender but not falling apart. Overboiling makes the cauliflower waterlogged and mushy, so it releases extra liquid into the sauce and loses structure during baking.

Swap the cauliflower

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sauce, 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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