Name: Cauliflower Pie
Ingredients: 1 small cauliflower; ½ lb potatoes; ½ lb fine wheatmeal; 3 eggs; 3 pints milk; 1 oz butter; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; salt; pepper

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cauliflower Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the vegetables

Parboil the cauliflower and potatoes.
Cut the cauliflower into pieces and slice the potatoes.
Place both in a pie dish with the butter, salt, and pepper.

Make the batter and bake

Make a batter with the wheatmeal, milk, and beaten eggs.
Pour the batter over the vegetables and mix well.
Bake for 1½ hours at 350°F (175°C).

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,052 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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

Eggs: Bind the batter and help it set into a firm custard-like layer when baked.
Fine wheatmeal: Forms the batter body that thickens and sets around the vegetables.
Milk: Provides liquid that combines with eggs and flour to create the set custard.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and flavor in the dish.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, milk, butter, nutmeg, pepper):

Capsicumfits better
Chivefits better
Asparagusfits better
Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, milk, butter, nutmeg, pepper. 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.