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Asparagus -in Ambush

A baked dish of asparagus baked in biscuit crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and biscuit share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Asparagus -in Ambush

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rolls

  1. Remove the crumb from the rolls and cut off the tops to serve as covers.

  2. Set the rolls open in the oven to crisp, laying the tops beside them.

Make the filling

  1. Heat the milk and pour it over the beaten eggs.

  2. Stir over low heat until it begins to thicken.

  3. Add the butter and flour to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the boiled asparagus, chopped fine.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the rolls with the asparagus mixture, replace the tops, and 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. Asparagus + biscuittop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together25 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Biscuit + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together889 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Biscuit + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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 flavour and the bulk of the filling.
Eggs
Thicken the milk mixture as they set with gentle heat, giving the filling body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, softening it into a creamy texture.
Biscuits or small light rolls
Act as hollow edible cases that hold the filling and soak up some of its moisture.
Butter
Adds richness and smoothness to the custard, with flour helping it thicken evenly.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until it begins to thicken. Eggs set into a custard at gentle heat; high heat can curdle them into lumps, so the mixture should be stirred constantly and removed once it just thickens.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Arrowrootfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

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