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Cauliflower a LA Creme

A creamy cauliflower dish made with consomme, vinegar, eggs, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 888 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflower a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Boil the cauliflower until tender.

Make the creamed sauce

  1. Heat the consomme and vinegar in a saucepan over medium heat until hot.

  2. Whisk in the eggs and cream five minutes before serving until well combined.

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. Cauliflower + vinegartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together888 recipes

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

  2. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Vinegar + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cauliflower + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together284 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish and carries the creamy sauce.
Eggs
Thicken the sauce as their proteins set when gently heated, giving it body.
Heavy cream
Adds richness, moisture and a smooth texture to the sauce.
Consomme
Provides the savory liquid base that flavors the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, creamy sauce.

The step that matters

Whisking the eggs and cream into the hot liquid. Egg proteins set at temperatures near simmering, so adding them to very hot liquid can scramble them into lumps. Whisking constantly and keeping the heat moderate helps the eggs blend into a smooth, thickened sauce.

Swap the cauliflower

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

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, egg, cream. 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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