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Cauliflower, Stuffed

A cauliflower head stuffed with bacon, veal, beef suet, bread crumbs, herbs, mushrooms, and eggs, simmered in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cauliflower, Stuffed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and cut the cauliflower into sprigs.

  2. Blanch the cauliflower sprigs in boiling water for 1–2 minutes, then drain.

Assemble

  1. Cover the bottom of a saucepan with bacon slices.

  2. Pack the cauliflower sprigs tightly, head down, filling gaps with stuffing.

  3. Mix veal, beef suet, bread crumbs, parsley, pepper, salt, chives, and mushrooms.

  4. Place the mixture on top of the cauliflower.

  5. Pour 3 beaten eggs over the mixture.

  6. Fill the saucepan with flavored stock.

Cook

  1. Simmer gently until the cauliflower is tender.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Cauliflower + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together233 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + chivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 through gentle simmering.
Eggs
Bind the stuffing together and set as the mixture cooks.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the stuffing hold its shape.
Beef suet
Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich in flavor.
Veal
Provides the meaty base of the stuffing.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until the cauliflower is tender. A gentle simmer cooks the cauliflower through without breaking it apart, while the eggs set slowly into the stuffing. Boiling hard can crack the florets and make the egg curdle or turn rubbery.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, bread, parsley, pepper, chive, mushroom):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, bread, parsley, pepper, chive, mushroom. 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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