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Cauliflower Au Gratin

A baked cauliflower dish topped with cheese and a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cauliflower Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA sharp oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Cook the cauliflower in boiling salted water for 30 minutes or until tender.

  2. Drain the cauliflower, place it in a pie dish, and press into a round shape. Keep hot.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the flour and milk.

  2. Stir until the sauce thickens, cooking for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Add ¾ of the cheese and seasoning, then pour over the cauliflower.

  4. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

Brown and serve

  1. Brown under the broiler or in a hot oven at 400°F (200°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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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 gratin and becomes tender when cooked through.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that coats the cauliflower.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce and carries flavour.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce and browns on top, adding savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until it thickens. Flour must be cooked in the hot butter and milk for a few minutes so it thickens fully and loses its raw starchy taste. Stopping early leaves a thin, floury sauce.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, pepper, butter, 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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