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Cream of Cauliflower Soup

A creamy soup made from cauliflower, stock, butter, flour, milk, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Cream of Cauliflower Soup

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cauliflower

  1. Soak the cauliflower in cold salted water, head down, for 1 hour to remove insects.

  2. In a pot, boil the cauliflower in chicken or veal stock (or hot water) with the onion, parsley, and celery until tender.

  3. Mash the cooked cauliflower through a sieve or potato ricer.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a separate saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  3. Gradually add the milk, salt, and pepper, stirring constantly until thickened, about 10 minutes.

  4. Stir in the cauliflower pulp and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

  5. Add the cream and mix well before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cauliflower + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together488 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 soup and, once mashed, gives it a thick, smooth texture.
Butter
Carries flavor and, with the flour, forms the roux that thickens the soup.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce as it cooks with the melted butter.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that thickens into the soup's body.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Gradually add the milk while stirring constantly. Adding liquid slowly to the butter and flour roux and stirring constantly keeps starch granules dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, parsley, celery, butter, flour, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, parsley, celery, butter, flour, milk. 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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