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Choufleur au Gratin
Ingredients.
A nice Cauliflower.
Two ounces of grated Parmesan Cheese.
One ounce of Butter.
Half an ounce of Flour.
One gill of cold Water.
One tablespoonful of Cream.
The book gives quantities only, leaving the method to a cook who already knew it. The proportions tell you most of what you need: this is a small white sauce made with water rather than milk, enriched at the end with cream and a good deal of Parmesan.
- No method givenBoil or steam the cauliflower whole until barely tender, break into florets, and set in a buttered dish. Make the roux with the butter and flour, add the water gradually, simmer until it thickens, then finish off the heat with the cream and most of the cheese; pour over, scatter the rest of the cheese, and brown.
- A gillIn a British book of this period a gill is a quarter of an imperial pint, 5 fl oz, or about two-thirds of a US cup. American gills are 4 fl oz, so err on the smaller side if you want a thick coating sauce.
- Water, not milkHalf an ounce of flour to 5 fl oz of liquid is about the proportion for a light coating sauce, and the double weight of butter keeps it rich rather than stiff. The water keeps the cauliflower's own flavour forward and lets the Parmesan carry the dish; milk would give a blander, heavier result.
- BrowningA gratin of this kind would have been browned under a salamander, an iron plate heated in the fire and held over the dish. A grill or broiler at full heat, four inches from the surface, does the same in two or three minutes. If you use the oven instead, 425F for about ten minutes, with the sauce already hot.
- Cooking the cauliflowerVictorian instructions routinely boiled cauliflower twenty minutes or more, which collapses it into a watery mass under the sauce. Eight to twelve minutes in well-salted water is enough; drain thoroughly and let it steam dry, or the sauce will thin on the plate.
- ParmesanTwo ounces of hard grated cheese to one small cauliflower is a high proportion, and it is meant to be. Use real Parmigiano-Reggiano or a comparable aged grana; pre-grated cheese with anti-caking starch will not brown cleanly.
- YieldOne medium cauliflower serves four as a savoury or side, two as a light supper dish.
Gratins of cauliflower under cheese sauce were standard in the French repertoire that British professional cookery adopted wholesale in the later nineteenth century, and the French title here is part of that borrowing: an English kitchen that called the dish choufleur au gratin was signalling which tradition it belonged to. The placement under Savouries is telling. In a full Victorian or Edwardian dinner the savoury came after the sweet, a small, sharply flavoured, usually cheesy or anchovy-based dish served to close the meal before dessert fruit, and a hot cheese gratin in a small quantity fitted that slot exactly.