Clean and remove the leaves from one large (or two small) cauliflowers, and wash well in fresh water. Then put the cauliflower into a large sauce-pan full of cold water, add a handful of salt, one teaspoonful of pepper, and one ounce of fresh butter, boil for half an hour, and drain well. Pour a sauce made of one tablespoonful of white wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, and one ounce of good butter over the cauliflower, and serve hot.
Cauliflower ‘alla Crema.’
Take off the outer leaves of a cauliflower (cut the stalk off close), and wash it in cold water. Tie it up in a piece of linen, stand it upright in an earthen pot of salted water, and boil for half an hour. Take it out carefully, drain, remove the linen, and put the cauliflower in a dish. Pour a hot ‘Alla Panna’ sauce (see Sauces, p. [125]) over it and serve at once. Or you can make a sauce of two ounces of fresh butter, one tablespoonful of fine flour, well mixed in a frying-pan, add three-quarters of a pint of milk, stir till it boils, then add a little salt and cheese.
Cauliflower ‘al Forno.’
Boil a large cauliflower as in last recipe (alla Crema). When dried place it in a baking-pan. Mix two ounces of butter and one tablespoonful of flour in a frying-pan, add three-quarters of a pint of milk, and stir continually till it boils. Then put in a bay leaf, a little chopped parsley, some salt and pepper, and boil for ten minutes in a Bain-marie. Then take out the bay leaf and pour the sauce over the cauliflower, sprinkling it with bread-crumbs. Put some bits of fresh butter on it, and bake in a very hot oven for ten or fifteen minutes.
Cauliflower ‘al Fritto.’
Cut off the leaves and clean a fine cauliflower, break it into pieces, parboil in salted water, drain, and put it to cool. Whip up two or three eggs (according to the size of your cauliflower), dip each piece of cauliflower in, then roll it in bread-crumbs, fry in boiling butter on both sides, sprinkle with grated cheese, and serve hot.
Cauliflower ‘al Gratin.’
Boil a head of cauliflower in salted water, then break it in small pieces into a sauté-pan with four ounces of fresh butter. As soon as it boils put it on a dish and pour a Béchamel sauce (see Sauces, p. [119]) over it. Put it in the oven, and when browned serve in the same dish.