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Cauliflower Au Gratin

A baked cauliflower dish topped with cheese sauce and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 Au Gratin

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Boil the cauliflower in salted water until tender, then drain.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, stir in the flour, and cook for 1 minute.

  2. Gradually add the milk, stirring until thickened.

  3. Add cheese, salt, and pepper to the sauce.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cauliflower in a baking dish, pour the cheese sauce over it, and sprinkle breadcrumbs on top.

  2. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cauliflower + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together569 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the bulk of the dish and becomes tender as it cooks in the sauce.
Milk
Liquid base that, heated with the roux, thickens into the smooth sauce.
Butter
Fat that is melted with the flour to start the roux and adds richness.
All-purpose flour
Starch that thickens the milk into a sauce when cooked with the butter.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce, adding flavor, richness and savory depth.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk, stirring until thickened. Adding milk slowly while stirring lets the flour starch disperse evenly, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, cheese, 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.

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