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Cauliflower Soup

A creamy soup made with cauliflower, chicken stock, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cauliflower Soup

Why it works: Cauliflower and chicken work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 112 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the chicken stock and cauliflower together for 20 minutes.

  2. Remove the cauliflower, set aside some of the best parts, and pass the remainder through a sieve.

  3. Mix the egg yolks and cream, then add them to the soup.

  4. Return the mixture to a saucepan and stir over heat until it begins to thicken.

Serve

  1. Place the reserved cauliflower pieces in a tureen and pour the soup over them.

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. Cauliflower + chickentop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together112 recipes

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

  2. Cream + chickentop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,241 recipes

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

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cauliflower + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together284 recipes

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

  5. Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Cauliflower
Forms the body of the soup and, once sieved, gives it a smooth, thick texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup as they gently set with heat and add richness.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Chicken stock
Provides the liquid base and savoury flavour in which the cauliflower cooks.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk and cream mixture over heat. Egg yolks set at around 70°C and can scramble if the soup gets too hot or is not stirred constantly. Gentle heat and steady stirring keep the soup smooth and thickened rather than curdled.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, chicken):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, chicken. 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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