Name: Cauliflower in Edam Shell
Ingredients: 1 medium cauliflower; 1½ cups cream sauce; coarse sea salt

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 in Edam Shell

Ingredients

1 medium cauliflower
1½ cups cream sauce
coarse sea salt

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower by removing the leaves and stem.
Boil the cauliflower in salted water until tender, then set aside to cool.
Break the cooled cauliflower into florets.
Add the florets to the cream sauce and mix well.

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.

Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cauliflower + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together463 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cauliflower + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together284 recipes

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