Why it works: Butter and milk 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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cauliflower
Trim the cauliflower, cutting off the leaves evenly from the flower.
Soak the cauliflower in salted water for 30 minutes.
Boil plenty of salted water with a pinch of baking soda. Place the cauliflower flower-side down in the boiling water and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes until slightly soft.
Drain the cauliflower in a sieve.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, mix the butter and flour over medium heat. Add the milk and boil while stirring constantly.
Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste, then stir in most of the cheese, reserving a little.
Bake and serve
Pour the sauce over the cauliflower, sprinkle with the reserved cheese, and place under the broiler to brown slightly. Serve hot.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,163 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,113 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together569 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 becomes tender when parboiled.
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and carries flavour in the base of the roux.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with the butter.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid of the sauce, which thickens as it boils.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds savoury flavour and helps the top brown under the broiler.
The step that matters
Boiling the sauce while stirring constantly. Flour thickens milk only when it is heated enough to swell its starch. Stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the base of the pan, giving a smooth, even sauce.
Swap the cauliflower
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, parmesan cheese, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Cauliflowerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, parmesan cheese, pepper. 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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