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Boiled Cauliflower
Trim off the leaves of a sound, firm head of cauliflower and wash it well in plenty of cold water in which a handful of salt has been dissolved. If any insects are visible between the branches of the cauliflower let it soak in salted water, with the flowerets down, for an hour or so, as the salt will kill the insects and they will fall down into the water. About three-quarters of an hour before serving put two tablespoonfuls of butter, one teaspoonful of salt, and one-fourth teaspoonful of white pepper into a saucepan large enough to hold the cauliflower; take from it the salted water, put it at once into the saucepan without draining it, cover carefully, set it over a slow fire, and let simmer until tender, which will be in about half an hour. Then without breaking the cauliflower take it up on a hot dish, let the butter and water in which it was cooked boil rapidly for a minute or so, then pour it over the cauliflower, and serve. If a thick sauce is desired, mix one teaspoonful of flour or cornstarch dissolved in one teacupful of water with the butter and water, boiling it constantly for two minutes, stirring frequently, and then serve it with the cauliflower. After it is carefully washed the cauliflower may be boiled till it is tender, and then drained and served with white sauce; or covered with sauce and breadcrumbs and browned in a hot oven; or when the heads are small and defective, either boiled or served in branches instead of whole, or mashed through a colander, and heated with pepper, salt and butter. Cold boiled cauliflower is very palatable fried plain in butter, or broken in branches and served; or mashed and fried, with the adding of an egg, and salt and pepper.
Boiled Cauliflower, American Style Pluck off the outside leaves and soak in cold salted water, top downwards for an hour to thoroughly cleanse it; then tie it in a twine bag to prevent breaking, and cook in salted boiling water for about twenty minutes, or until quite tender. If it is not boiled in a bag, remove the scum before it settles on the cauliflower. Serve in a shallow dish and cover it with a cream of hollandaise sauce, or add a little grated cheese; cover with cracker-crumbs moistened in melted butter and bake until the crumbs are done brown, or when cold, serve as a salad with mayonnaise dressing.
Two methods sit side by side here: a near-braise in which the cauliflower cooks in the water clinging to it plus butter, and a plainer boil. The first is worth doing; the timings in both need cutting.
- The timing is the whole issueHalf an hour of simmering, or twenty minutes at a rolling boil, is what the recipe asks for, and it produces grey, sulfurous mush. A whole trimmed head is tender at 10 to 15 minutes covered, florets at 5 to 8. Test the stem with a knife tip rather than watching the clock.
- Do not drain itThe instruction to lift the head straight from the soaking water into the buttered pan "without draining" is deliberate. The water caught between the florets is all the liquid the dish gets, so it steams in butter rather than boiling, and the cooking liquor becomes the sauce.
- Slow fireOn a modern burner this means low heat with the lid on tight, just enough to keep a steady steam. If the pan runs dry before the stem softens, add a tablespoon or two of water, not more.
- The insect soakAn hour head-down in salted water was a real necessity with field-cut cauliflower. Commercially trimmed heads rarely need it, and if you do soak, do it in the refrigerator rather than on the counter.
- TeacupfulPeriod usage varies, somewhere between half and three-quarters of a modern cup rather than a full measuring cup. For the thickened version, one teaspoon of flour or cornstarch to that much liquid gives a very thin sauce; two teaspoons is closer to what a modern cook would expect.
- Hot ovenFor the crumbed and browned variations, read this as roughly 400 to 450F. The point is colour on the crumbs, not further cooking, so five to eight minutes on an upper rack is enough.
- White pepperSpecified largely for appearance, black flecks being considered a fault in a white dish. Black pepper will work, though it tastes noticeably different and shows in the sauce.
- Pan materialCook cauliflower in stainless or enamel. Bare cast iron and unlined aluminium will turn the curd yellow or grey.
- YieldOne large head serves four as a vegetable course, or two if it is the centre of the plate under hollandaise.
Cauliflower reached English and American tables as a garden luxury and kept something of that status into the nineteenth century, which may be part of why so much care is taken here over getting a head to the table whole and unbroken. The twine bag in the second method holds the head together through the boil, and the instruction to skim the scum before it settles reflects a kitchen in which a faint grey film on a white vegetable counted as a visible failure. If the page comes from Oscar Tschirky's Waldorf cook book of the 1890s, the pattern of a plain preparation followed by a run of finishes -- hollandaise, cheese, cracker crumbs, mayonnaise for the cold remains -- is in keeping with hotel cookery, where one boiled vegetable had to be presentable several ways. What the label "American Style" was meant to distinguish is not explained on the page.