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Cauliflower, Fried

Fried cauliflower pieces coated in egg, breadcrumbs, and cheese, then fried until golden and sprinkled with curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,426 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cauliflower, Fried

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Divide the boiled cauliflower into sections.

  2. Dip each section in the beaten egg mixed with milk.

  3. Roll the sections in breadcrumbs mixed with grated cheese.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot fat until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

  2. Drain on paper and serve hot, sprinkled with curry powder.

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. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  2. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Cauliflower + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together314 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Cauliflower + cheesetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Egg + cheesetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that holds onto the cauliflower while it fries.
Beaten egg
Binds the milk and crumbs to the cauliflower so the coating adheres.
Grated cheese
Adds savoury flavour and helps the crumb coating brown in the hot fat.
Milk
Thins the egg so it coats the cauliflower evenly and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Frying until golden brown. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the coating quickly; if it is too cool, the crumbs absorb oil and turn greasy while the cauliflower stays soggy.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, cheese):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, cheese. 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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