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Baked Cauliflowers

A baked cauliflower dish topped with a butter, flour, broth, nutmeg, egg yolk sauce and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Baked Cauliflowers

Oven, in the book's wordsA fierce oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a fierce oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Boil the cauliflower whole until nearly done, then drain well.

  2. Arrange the cauliflower closely on a fireproof dish.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine broth, butter, flour, and nutmeg; stir in egg yolks until smooth.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower and dust with Parmesan cheese.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  3. Garnish with slices of smoked tongue or fried sausages before serving.

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. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cauliflower + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together126 recipes

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

  4. Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 base of the dish and becomes tender while baking under the sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they set, giving it a smooth, custard-like texture.
Flour
Thickens the broth and butter mixture so the sauce clings to the cauliflower.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on the surface, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the sauce taste smooth and well rounded.

The step that matters

Stir the egg yolks into the sauce until smooth. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so if the sauce is too hot when they go in, they can scramble into lumps. Stirring them in smoothly and keeping the heat gentle helps the sauce bake up silky.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, nutmeg, egg, parmesan cheese):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, nutmeg, egg, parmesan cheese. 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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