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Cauliflower with Stuffing

Cauliflower with a veal and beef suet stuffing, baked in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflower with Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Clean the cauliflower and cut it into sprigs.

  2. Boil the sprigs in salted water for 2 minutes, then drain.

Stuff and cook

  1. Pack the sprigs tightly in a saucepan with the heads downward, on a layer of thin bacon slices.

  2. Fill the vacant spaces with the stuffing made from veal, suet, bread crumbs, pepper, salt, parsley, chives, and mushrooms.

  3. Pour the beaten eggs over the stuffing and let them soak.

  4. Add enough stock to cover the mixture.

  5. Simmer gently until the cauliflower is tender and the sauce is reduced.

Serve

  1. Invert the saucepan onto a hot dish to serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Cauliflower + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together233 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + chivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together19 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 structure of the dish, holding the stuffing while it cooks until tender.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing and set as they cook, giving it a firmer, custard-like texture.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the stuffing hold together rather than becoming loose.
Veal
Provides the meaty body of the stuffing and a savory flavor.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the cauliflower is tender and the sauce is reduced. Gentle heat lets the eggs set slowly into the stuffing without curdling or toughening. A hard boil can make the egg rubbery and break up the cauliflower sprigs.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, bread, pepper, parsley, chive, mushroom):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, bread, pepper, parsley, chive, mushroom. 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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