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Cauliflower Au Gratin

A baked cauliflower dish topped with a cheese sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the cauliflower. Cook until tender but not broken.

  2. Trim off the green parts and place the cauliflower in a serving dish.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pan, melt the butter.

  2. Add the flour and mix well.

  3. Gradually add the milk, stirring until the mixture boils.

  4. Stir in half of the grated cheese and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower.

  2. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until thoroughly browned.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 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. Cheese + milktop 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 bulk of the dish and becomes tender when cooked in salted water.
Butter
Melts to form the fat base that the flour cooks into a roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, which thickens as it comes to a boil.
Grated cheese
Melts into the sauce and browns on top to give the gratin its crust.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk, stirring until the mixture boils. Adding milk slowly while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, preventing lumps. The sauce must reach a boil so the starch gelatinizes and the sauce thickens fully.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

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