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Cauliflower Soup

A creamy cauliflower soup made with stock, butter, flour, egg yolks, and seasonings.

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

Why it works: Nutmeg and flour 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 ↓

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the cauliflower into small florets.

  2. Soak the florets in salt water.

  3. Heat the stock in a saucepan.

Make the soup

  1. In another saucepan, mix the flour and butter.

  2. Add the stock and stir until it boils.

  3. Add the cauliflower to the saucepan.

  4. Boil uncovered until tender.

  5. Press the mixture through a fine sieve.

  6. Warm the soup again.

  7. Just before serving, mix the beaten egg yolks with a little milk.

  8. Add seasoning.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread croutons.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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 body of the soup and, once pressed through a sieve, gives it its thick, smooth texture.
White stock
Provides the liquid base that carries the cauliflower flavour and cooks the florets until tender.
Butter
Enriches the flavour and, cooked with flour, forms the roux that thickens the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked with butter and stock into a smooth base.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and add body when stirred in near the end, adding richness and a silky texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so if the soup is too hot or boils after they are added, they can scramble and leave the soup grainy. Stir them in off the heat, just before serving.

Swap the cauliflower

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

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