Name: Cauliflower Au Gratin
Ingredients: 1 head cauliflower; Salt; Butter; Coarse sea salt; Black pepper; Parmesan cheese; Cracker crumbs; Milk; Cayenne pepper

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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.

Boil the cauliflower in salted water until tender, then divide into small clusters.
Butter a deep dish and layer the cauliflower clusters, sprinkling with butter, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.
Cover with Parmesan cheese and then with cracker crumbs, wetting each layer with milk.
Finish with a layer of crumbs dotted with butter and dusted with cayenne pepper.
Bake covered at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes, then uncover to brown.
Serve in the 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,113 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Parmesan cheese + milktop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,608 recipes

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

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

Swap the cauliflower

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

Potatofits better
Tomatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, parmesan cheese, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.