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The Prepared Cauliflower

Cauliflower boiled in stock and served with Parmesan cheese, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The Prepared Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Bring the stock to a boil.

  2. Pour the boiling stock over the cauliflower in a tureen.

  3. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese on a separate plate, sprinkled with coriander pepper and chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Cauliflower + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together233 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Cauliflower + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together138 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Main vegetable; its texture softens as it sits in the hot stock.
Clear stock
Liquid that carries heat into the cauliflower and gives the dish its savory base.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savory flavor when sprinkled over the served dish.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling stock over the cauliflower. The stock must be at a full boil so it holds enough heat to cook the cauliflower through. Pouring it over promptly keeps the vegetable hot and evenly softened.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parmesan cheese, pepper, parsley):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parmesan cheese, pepper, parsley. 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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