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, Canned
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the asparagus
Wash the asparagus in cold water.
Pack the asparagus into flat, square cans with the heads together until full.
Seal and process the cans
Cover the cans with a lid that has a half-dollar-sized opening and solder it tightly.
Fill the cans with cold water and add 1 teaspoon of salt to each can.
Solder the opening shut.
Place the cans in a large boiler and cover them with cold water.
Boil slowly for 30 minutes.
After boiling, puncture a small hole in the top of each can to release steam. Solder quickly.
Return the cans to the boiler for another 30 minutes of slow boiling.
Make the sauce and serve
To use the asparagus, pour off the water.
Heat ½ pint of milk in a saucepan. Mix in 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 teaspoons of flour, stirring until it boils.
Add the asparagus to the milk mixture. Bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Asparagus + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together650 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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
- Is the main vegetable, cooked through and served in the sauce.
- Rich sweet milk
- Forms the liquid base of the cream sauce, giving it body and richness.
- Fresh butter
- Adds fat and flavor to the sauce and helps it stay smooth.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the milk into a sauce as it cooks and comes to a boil.
The step that matters
Thickening the milk with butter and flour. Stirring the flour and butter into the milk until it boils lets starch swell and thicken the sauce evenly. Adding flour to hot liquid without stirring can form lumps.
Swap the asparagus
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour):
- Potatofits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Leekfits better
- Asparagusthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, 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.
You might also like
Asparagus Soup179 recipes
Asparagus Salad77 recipes
Cream of Asparagus38 recipes
Boiled Asparagus27 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.