Cauliflower in White Sauce

History

"Coliflor en salsa blanca" is a plain vegetable preparation recorded in La Mejor Cocinera, Recetas de Cocina, a Spanish home-cookery manual published by the Madrid house of Editorial (Saturnino) Calleja. The catalogued copy carries no named author. The instructions are brief: the cauliflower is cleaned and washed well, then boiled in water with a little salt and manteca (lard), taking care that it does not fall apart; once cooked it is set on a serving dish so that it does not lose its original shape and is dressed ("se rocía") with white sauce. The book adds that it may instead be placed in the sauce itself and turned a few times over the fire, noting only that done this way "no tiene tan buena vista" — it does not look as good. The "salsa blanca" the recipe calls for is defined a few lines away in the same book: a spoonful of flour is cooked in manteca, then milk and salt are stirred in, served once smooth and fairly thick — a simple roux-and-milk white sauce. A white sauce built on a roux of this kind is first documented in French cookery, in La Varenne's Le cuisinier françois (1651); that is the recorded history of the sauce technique, not of this particular dish, and no source ties this Spanish home recipe to that lineage. Beyond the recipe as printed, the record does not document a specific origin, a geographic lineage, or any social-status meaning for this cauliflower dish.

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower
• salt
• manteca (lard)
• white sauce (salsa blanca)

Instructions

1. Clean and wash the cauliflower well. Place it in a pot of water with a pinch of salt and a small amount of manteca (lard), taking care that it does not fall apart during cooking.
2. Once cooked, transfer it carefully to a serving dish, preserving its original shape. Dress it with white sauce, spooning the sauce over the top.
3. Alternatively, the cauliflower may be placed directly in the warm white sauce and turned gently in the pan over the fire. However, this method does not present as pleasing an appearance.