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Cauliflower Au Gratin

A baked cauliflower dish topped with cheese and white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,987 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cauliflower Au Gratin

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Boil the cauliflower until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, mix the white sauce with 2 tablespoons of grated cheese.

  2. Pour the cheese sauce over the cauliflower in a serving dish.

  3. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of grated cheese on top.

Brown and serve

  1. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven or under a broiler.

  2. Serve as a luncheon dish.

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. Sauce + cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cauliflower + cheesetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Cauliflower + saucetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together463 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, cooked until tender before saucing.
White sauce
Provides moisture and a creamy coating that binds the dish together.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and, when heated, melts and browns on top.

The step that matters

Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven or under a broiler. Browning depends on surface heat; the cheese needs enough heat to melt and turn golden without the sauce drying out or burning. Watch closely under a broiler, where browning happens quickly.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, cheese):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, cheese. 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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