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Asparagus and Breadcrumbs

A baked dish of asparagus mixed with breadcrumbs, butter, and milk, topped with breadcrumbs and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 and Breadcrumbs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the tough ends from the asparagus and cut into small pieces.

  2. In a bowl, combine asparagus, breadcrumbs, butter, milk, salt, and pepper.

Assemble

  1. Dust a well-buttered mold lightly with breadcrumbs.

  2. Layer the asparagus mixture and breadcrumbs alternately in the mold, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper and dotting with butter. Finish with a layer of breadcrumbs on top.

  3. Pour the milk over the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve hot.

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 + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 its fresh, grassy flavour in the dish.
Breadcrumbs
Add structure and absorb liquid, giving the layers a soft yet set texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top brown and the flavour feel rounded.
Milk
Supplies moisture that soaks into the breadcrumbs and sets into a custard-like base.

The step that matters

Pouring the milk over the dish. Milk poured over the layers must soak through the breadcrumbs before baking; if it sits on top, the bottom stays wet and the dish may bake unevenly.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, pepper. 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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