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Scalloped Asparagus

A baked dish of asparagus with eggs, butter, roux, breadcrumbs, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Asparagus

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.

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Wash the asparagus.

  2. Cut off the hard, woody parts of the stalks.

  3. Cut the tender parts into 1-inch lengths.

  4. Parboil the asparagus in hot, salted water for 10 minutes.

  5. Drain the asparagus.

Layer the dish

  1. Layer the asparagus in a buttered baking dish.

  2. Scatter minced hard-boiled eggs over the asparagus.

  3. Season the eggs with salt, pepper, and bits of butter.

  4. Repeat layering until all ingredients are used.

Make the sauce

  1. Make a roux with 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon flour.

  2. Thin the roux with 1 cup hot milk.

  3. Cook the sauce for 1 minute.

  4. Season the sauce with paprika.

  5. Pour the sauce over the asparagus.

  6. Top with a layer of asparagus.

Bake and brown

  1. Sift fine bread crumbs and grated cheese over the top.

  2. Add bits of butter on top.

  3. Bake covered at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  4. Uncover and brown slightly.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender after parboiling and baking.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add soft texture and richness between the layers of asparagus.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture and helps the top brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce when cooked with butter as a roux.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid of the sauce that moistens the whole dish.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping as they brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Thin the roux with hot milk. Adding hot milk to a butter and flour roux helps it blend smoothly, so the sauce stays free of lumps and thickens evenly as it cooks.

Swap the asparagus

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

  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 egg, pepper, butter, flour, milk, bread, cheese. 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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