No. 2717

Cauliflowers with Cheese—Baked

Choux-fleurs an Fromage Gratines

Suppress the hard parts from some cauliflowers, divide in small flowerets and cook in salted water. When they are tender and drained range them in layers in a vegetable dish with a little reduced bechamel (No. 409); bestrew with grated parmesan and pour over some butter; give them a dome shape and cover with a layer of thick bechamel, finished with grated parmesan and butter; dredge evenly with more parmesan and color nicely in the oven for twelve minutes.

← No. 2716 Cauliflower a la Villeroi, Fried and Sauted Cabbages & Greens No. 2718 Cauliflowers with Fried Bread-Crumbs →

For the Modern Kitchen

A plain cauliflower gratin from Delmonico's kitchen, written for cooks who already had a pot of béchamel on the stove. Two things carry it: the sauce must be thick enough to hold a dome, and the cauliflower must be dry before it meets the sauce.

The hinge: drain hardCauliflower holds a surprising amount of water, and any that leaks out will thin the sauce and pool in the dish. After boiling, drain the florets and let them sit in the colander or on a towel for several minutes, steam off, before layering.
Reduced béchamelReduced bechamel -- Ranhofer's No. 409 is his bechamel; "reduced" means simmered down until it coats a spoon heavily and barely slumps. For the top layer he asks for it thicker still, since it has to hold the dome shape.
Oven heat"Color nicely in the oven for twelve minutes" implies a hot oven; Ranhofer gives no temperature. A few minutes under the broiler will do the same job. The dish is already cooked through; the heat is only there to brown the cheese and butter.
ParmesanReal Parmigiano-Reggiano or a good grana, grated fine. The pre-grated shelf-stable kind contains anti-caking starch and will go grainy rather than browning into a crust.
Butter, poured over"Pour over some butter" means melted butter, spooned on between the layers and again over the top. It is what browns the cheese; without it the surface dries out and stays pale.
VesselAny shallow flameproof or ovenproof gratin dish. A wide, shallow shape gives more browned surface than a deep one.
Salted waterSalt the cooking water assertively — about a tablespoon per quart. The béchamel and cheese season the outside, not the interior of the florets.
YieldThe recipe gives no quantities, only "some cauliflowers." Two medium heads, trimmed to florets, will fill a dish for about six as a side. Serve straight from the oven; the crust softens within a few minutes.

A Little History

This is entry No. 2717 in The Epicurean (1894), Charles Ranhofer's vast record of his years as chef at Delmonico's in New York. The French title, choux-fleurs au fromage gratinés, marks it as one of the plainest members of a family of gratins that runs through nineteenth-century French professional cookery: a cooked vegetable, a mother sauce, grated cheese, butter, and browning heat. Ranhofer's book is organized like a reference work rather than a household manual, which is why the béchamel is not written out here but cross-referenced to No. 409 — the reader was presumably expected to be working in a kitchen where the sauce was already made. Parmesan rather than Gruyère is worth noting; both appear in gratins of the period, and Parmesan browns into a drier, saltier crust.