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Cauliflower au Gratin
Cleanse, trim, and quarter 1 or 2 large cauliflowers. Throw them into boiling water, and let them remain for five minutes; drain, and boil them in plenty of salted water until they are ready. Whilst they are boiling mix smoothly together in a stewpan 1 ounce of butter and one ounce of flour, add a quarter of a pint of cold water and a little pepper and salt. Let the sauce boil, and stir it over the fire for ten minutes. Put in with it 1 ounce of grated Parmesan cheese and 1 tablespoonful of cream, and take the saucepan from the fire. Cut the cauliflowers into neat pieces; lay half of these in a tureen, pour a little of the sauce over them, and add the remainder of the vegetables and the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle a large tablespoonful of bread raspings and another of grated Parmesan over the top, and bake the preparation in a hot oven until it is nicely browned. Serve very hot. Time to brown, a quarter of an hour.
A straightforward flour-butter-and-water sauce rather than a milk béchamel, which keeps the flavour of the cauliflower forward. The main thing to correct is the cooking of the vegetable itself.
- Do not cook the cauliflower twiceThe five-minute plunge plus a second boil "until they are ready" will leave the florets waterlogged and sulphurous. Boil once in well-salted water for 5 to 8 minutes, until a knife meets slight resistance, then drain thoroughly; the oven finish will do the rest.
- A quarter of a pintIn this British-style book that is an imperial quarter pint, 5 fluid ounces, so a scant 2/3 cup. With 1 oz each of butter and flour it gives a very thick sauce, closer to a paste; loosen it with a little of the cauliflower water if it will not pour.
- Bread raspingsDried crusts grated to a coarse powder, the Victorian equivalent of dry breadcrumbs. Plain unseasoned dried crumbs, or panko, do the same job.
- TureenHere it means the baking dish, not a covered soup vessel. Use a shallow gratin dish about 8 inches across so the topping browns rather than steams.
- Hot oven425 to 450F. At that heat a quarter of an hour is about right for browning; the whole dish is already cooked, so you are only crisping the top.
- Cook the roux outTen minutes of stirring over the fire is not padding. A water-based sauce this thick tastes raw and pasty otherwise, and there is no milk or stock to mask it.
- ParmesanGrate it yourself from a block. Pre-grated cheese is usually dusted with an anti-caking agent (commonly powdered cellulose, sometimes starch), which in a sauce this thick can read as chalkiness.
- YieldOne large cauliflower serves 4 as a side; two serves 6 to 8, and the sauce quantities should be doubled with them.