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A Ragout O F Cauliflowers

A ragout of cauliflower simmered in brown gravy, seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cauliflower and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,113 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

A Ragout O F Cauliflowers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the leaves and core from the cauliflowers and rinse them.

Stew and season

  1. Stew the cauliflowers in brown gravy or cullis until tender.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

Plate and serve

  1. Place the cauliflowers in a dish and pour the gravy over them.

  2. Boil some sprigs of cauliflower until very white and arrange them around the dish.

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

Cauliflowers
Forms the body of the ragout and becomes tender and soft as it stews.
Brown gravy or cullis
Moistens the cauliflower and adds savoury flavour through the stew.

The step that matters

Stew until tender. Cauliflower stays firm and grainy if it is not cooked long enough. Slow stewing in liquid softens its cell walls, so the florets become tender and absorb the gravy's flavour.

“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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