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Cauliflower Soup

A creamy soup made with cauliflower, stock, milk, cream, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Cauliflower Soup

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Boil the cauliflower until half-cooked, then drain and remove all green parts.

  2. Cut the white parts into small pieces and add to the stock with celery seeds, bay leaf, mace, cloves, allspice, and peppercorns.

  3. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for about 30 minutes.

  4. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Mix the flour or Florador with a little milk to form a smooth paste.

  2. Add the paste to the soup along with the remaining milk, return to the saucepan, and boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Season to taste, and if the soup is too thick, add more milk.

  4. Remove from heat, stir in the cream, and serve with small dice of fried bread on the side.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cauliflower + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together488 recipes

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

  4. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the main body and flavour of the soup once puréed through a sieve.
White stock
Provides the liquid base and savoury flavour for the soup.
Flour or florador
Thickens the soup as it is heated with the milk.
Milk
Adds moisture and body, loosening the soup to the desired thickness.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture at the end.

The step that matters

Adding the flour paste and boiling. The flour must be mixed smooth with a little milk before adding, and the soup stirred constantly while boiling for 10 minutes. Starch thickens only when heated, and stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cauliflower, flour, cream, milk, celery, clove, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cauliflower, flour, cream, milk, celery, clove, allspice. 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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