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Cauliflower, Tinned

A dish of drained canned cauliflower topped with white or cheese sauce and grated parmesan, then browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and parmesan cheese match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,041 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Cauliflower, Tinned

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Open the tin and drain the liquid into a colander.

  2. Rinse the cauliflower with cold water and drain again.

  3. Transfer the cauliflower to a vegetable dish.

Heat and finish

  1. Cover the dish and place it in a frying pan filled with hot water over low heat.

  2. Once heated, pour over white sauce or cheese sauce, and sprinkle with grated parmesan before browning.

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 + parmesan cheesetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,041 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cauliflower + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together138 recipes

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

  4. Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).

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

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

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, providing the vegetable base for the sauces.
White sauce
Adds creamy moisture and a smooth coating over the cauliflower.
Cheese sauce
Adds richness and savoury flavour, and melts over the cauliflower when heated.
Parmesan cheese
Adds a salty, savoury flavour and helps the top brown when cooked.

Swap the cauliflower

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, cheese, parmesan 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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