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Cauliflower in White Sauce

A cauliflower dish simmered in broth, white sauce, cream, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cauliflower in White Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Half boil the cauliflower and cut it into small bunches.

Simmer

  1. Place the bunches in a stew pan with broth, salt, and white sauce.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Add cream and butter rolled in flour.

  4. Shake together and simmer for a few more minutes 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 main body of the dish and becomes tender as it simmers.
White sauce
Supplies the creamy coating and body that clings to the cauliflower.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the liquid while butter adds richness and smooth texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the butter rolled in flour. Flour that is simply dropped into hot liquid can clump. Coating it in butter first helps it disperse, so the sauce thickens evenly without lumps.

Swap the cauliflower

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, cream, butter, flour. 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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