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Escaloped Cauliflower

A baked cauliflower casserole layered with béchamel, cheese, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Escaloped Cauliflower

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Cook the cauliflower in salted water for 1 hour, then drain and break it apart.

Assemble

  1. In an escalop dish, layer the cauliflower and moisten with béchamel or cream sauce.

  2. Sprinkle a little grated cheese on each layer.

  3. Continue layering until all the cauliflower is used, using 2 tablespoons of cheese and 1 pint of sauce for each head.

Bake

  1. Cover the top with bread crumbs and cheese, then dot with bits of butter.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes in a moderate oven 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its main body and vegetable flavour.
Béchamel or cream sauce
Moistens the cauliflower so the layers stay creamy rather than dry during baking.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce and adds savoury flavour and richness, helping the top brown.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that promotes browning on the topping and enriches flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the cauliflower until just tender before layering. Cauliflower cooked too long becomes waterlogged and mushy, releasing water that thins the sauce and makes the casserole soggy. Draining it well keeps the layers firm and the sauce properly thick.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, cheese, bread, butter. 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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