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Asparagus with Eggs

A baked dish of asparagus topped with a beaten egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Asparagus with Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Boil the asparagus for 20 minutes.

  2. Cut off the tender tips and place them in a deep pie plate.

  3. Butter the asparagus and season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

Make the egg topping and bake

  1. Beat the eggs separately until stiff.

  2. Add milk or cream, melted butter, and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Pour the egg mixture over the asparagus and bake at 350°F (175°C) until the eggs are set.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Asparagus + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable body and a tender texture under the custard.
Eggs
Set when baked, giving the dish its structure and custard-like texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour across the asparagus and egg layer.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and softness, making the egg mixture less firm and more tender.

The step that matters

Baking until the eggs are set. Eggs turn from liquid to firm as their proteins coagulate with heat. Pulling the dish too early leaves a runny centre, while overbaking makes the custard rubbery and dry.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, egg, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusthe original
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, egg, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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