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Asparagus Pudding

A savory pudding made with boiled asparagus, eggs, milk, flour, butter, pepper, and salt.

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 Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Boil the green tops of the asparagus until tender, then cut into small pieces.

  2. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then add the beaten eggs, pepper, salt, and milk; mix well.

  3. Gradually add the flour while beating until smooth.

  4. Stir in the asparagus, then pour into a buttered mold.

Steam and serve

  1. Cover the mold and place it in a kettle of boiling water; boil for 2 hours.

  2. Serve in a pudding dish with drawn butter poured around it.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 flavor and body of the pudding.
Eggs
Set when heated, giving the pudding its firm, custard-like structure.
Flour
Thickens the liquid mixture so the pudding holds its shape.
Milk
Supplies moisture that cooks into a tender, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for flavor and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the flour while beating. Flour added all at once can form lumps that stay in the batter. Adding it gradually while beating keeps the mixture smooth before it sets.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

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