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Brussels Sprouts with Cheese Sauce

A dish of boiled Brussels sprouts topped with cheese cream sauce and browned bread crumbs, baked briefly and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Brussels Sprouts with Cheese Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Boil the Brussels sprouts until tender, then drain them.

  2. Place the sprouts in a serving dish.

Top and bake

  1. Pour the cheese cream sauce over the sprouts.

  2. Sprinkle with browned bread crumbs.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 10 minutes.

  4. Serve very hot.

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. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

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

  4. Cheese + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,934 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

Brussels sprouts
Form the main body of the dish and carry the sauce and crumbs.
Cheese cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness, coating the sprouts as it heats.
Browned bread crumbs
Add a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Bake until the topping is golden. Baking heats the sauce through and browns the crumbs. Too short a bake leaves the sauce cool and the crumbs pale, while too long can dry the sauce and over-darken the topping.

Swap the brussels sprouts

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Brussels sproutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream, sauce, bread. 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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