Name: Cauliflower — Oa Fool Kobee
Ingredients: 1 head of cauliflower; 2 cups milk; 2 cups water; white sauce (for dressing)

Why it works: Cauliflower and milk work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 314 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Cauliflower — Oa Fool Kobee

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower
2 cups milk
2 cups water
white sauce (for dressing)

Directions

Prepare and cook

Remove all small leaves from the cauliflower and divide the shoots.
Boil the cauliflower in a mixture of milk and water until tender.

Serve

Serve with white sauce if desired.

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.

Cauliflower + milktop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together314 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cauliflower + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together463 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + saucetop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,759 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 boils.
Milk: Adds richness and a mild sweetness as the cauliflower cooks in it.