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Cauliflower Loaf

A savory loaf made from cauliflower, veal, bacon, and seasonings, stewed until the sauce is absorbed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Cauliflower Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim and parboil the cauliflower, then place it in cold water and drain.

  2. Line the bottom of a stew-pan with slices of bacon and place the cauliflower head down.

Stuff and stew

  1. Make a stuffing by mixing the veal, beef suet, parsley, scallions, mushrooms, salt, pepper, and eggs.

  2. Press the stuffing into the open spaces of the cauliflower.

  3. Season well and stew the cauliflower with some stock until the sauce is consumed.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the stuffing so it holds together when stewed.
Veal
Provides the main meat body of the stuffing.
Beef suet
Adds fat, keeping the stuffing moist and rich during stewing.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and savoury, earthy flavour to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Pressing the stuffing into the cauliflower. The stuffing must fill the open florets firmly, since loose filling can fall out or leave gaps while the cauliflower stews. The eggs help it set and hold its shape as it cooks.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, parsley, mushroom, pepper, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, parsley, mushroom, pepper, egg. 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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