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Asparagus in Ambush

A baked roll filled with a white sauce of asparagus, flour, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 in Ambush

6 rolls

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rolls

  1. Cut off the tops of the rolls to serve as covers.

  2. Remove the crumb from the rolls.

  3. Dust the shells and covers with melted butter.

  4. Brown the rolls in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

Make the filling

  1. Make a white sauce by combining the milk, butter, and flour in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Cut the tender part of the asparagus finely.

  3. Cook the cut asparagus in the white sauce for a few minutes.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the rolls with the asparagus mixture.

  2. Place the tops back on the rolls.

  3. 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. Milk + buttertop 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. Flour + buttertop 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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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
Forms the main filling and adds its own vegetable flavor and tender texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce that binds the filling.
Flour
Thickens the milk and butter into a white sauce.
Butter
Adds richness to the sauce and browns the roll shells.
Eggs
Listed in the ingredients but not used in any step of this method.

The step that matters

Make the white sauce. Flour must be cooked with the butter and hot milk over medium heat so it thickens smoothly without lumps or a raw starchy taste.

Swap the asparagus

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

  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 flour, milk, egg, pepper, butter. 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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