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Cauliflower Au Gratin
I cauliflower 1 pint (2 cups) white sauce 3 tablespoonfuls grated cheese I heaping tablespoonful (I oz.) butter Salt and pepper Wash and trim the cauliflower and boil it in boiling salted water till tender. When done, drain well and shape it neatly. Mix two tablespoonfuls of the
A plain gratin of the sort that fills the vegetable chapters of Edwardian cookery books: boiled cauliflower, a cheese-enriched white sauce, and a browned top. The measurements are workable as given, but the cooking time for the cauliflower reflects a period taste for very soft vegetables.
- Don't boil it to collapseA whole trimmed head needs roughly 10 to 15 minutes in salted water, or 5 to 6 minutes if broken into florets. "Till tender" in books of this period often meant considerably longer, which is how cauliflower gets its reputation for sulphurous mush. Test the thickest part of the stalk with a knife tip and drain the moment it gives.
- Drain hardCauliflower holds a surprising amount of water in its crevices, and any that escapes into the dish will thin the sauce and pool under the browned top. Turn the head stalk-upward in the colander for several minutes and blot it before saucing.
- A pint of white sauceTwo cups is generous for one head. A medium béchamel is 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour per cup of milk, cooked out for a minute or two before the milk goes in, so figure 4 tablespoons of each here.
- The cheeseThree tablespoons of grated cheese is a modest amount by current habit and assumes something dry and sharp — an aged Cheddar or Parmesan. A soft young cheese will not give the same flavour at that quantity and will make the sauce greasy.
- BrowningThe text here breaks off before the finishing, but the cauliflower is already cooked, so all the dish needs is colour on top: a hot oven for about 15 minutes, or 3 to 4 minutes under the broiler with the dish set well back. A long bake in a moderate oven only overcooks the cauliflower further.
- The casserole itselfThe dish -- Any shallow ovenproof baking dish serves the purpose; a shallow one gives more browned surface than a deep one.
- YieldOne head with a pint of sauce serves four as a side dish, or two as a light supper with bread.
Cauliflower au gratin is a plain expression of a French technique that English and American kitchens took up in the nineteenth century: gratiner, to give a dish a browned crust, usually by way of cheese, crumbs, or both. It is a dish suited to fireproof glazed earthenware -- able to go into the oven and then onto the table -- because gratins look finished in the dish they were cooked in.