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Brocoli and Cauliflower

A simple boiled broccoli and cauliflower dish served with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Broccoli and cauliflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 127 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Brocoli and Cauliflower

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the outer leaves and cut the main stalks close to the heads.

  2. Pare the skin from the large stalks and wash them.

  3. Soak the vegetables in a pan of saltwater for 1 hour, heads down.

Boil

  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the boiling water.

  3. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

  4. Add the broccoli to the pot.

  5. Add the cauliflower to the pot, flower side down.

  6. Boil the vegetables for 15-20 minutes.

  7. Check for doneness by testing the tenderness of the stalks.

  8. Remove the vegetables as soon as the stalks feel soft to avoid overcooking.

  9. Drain the vegetables in a colander.

Serve

  1. Serve with melted butter.

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. Broccoli + cauliflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together127 recipes

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

  2. Cauliflower + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together823 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Broccoli + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Broccoli
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender texture in boiling water.
Cauliflower
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking to a tender texture in boiling water.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat that complements the mild flavor of the boiled vegetables.

The step that matters

Removing the vegetables as soon as the stalks feel soft. Stalks keep softening past the ideal point, and overcooked broccoli and cauliflower turn mushy and lose color and flavor, so timing the removal matters.

Swap the broccoli

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, butter):

  1. Broccolithe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Cucumberfits about as well
  4. Radishfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, butter. 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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