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Asparagus Pudding

A baked dish of boiled asparagus mixed with eggs, butter, flour, milk, and seasonings, served with drawn butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

Prepare the batter

  1. Boil the asparagus until tender, then cool and chop it.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs, melted butter, pepper, and salt together.

  3. Gradually add the flour, then the milk mixed with baking soda, and finally the chopped asparagus.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased mold with a lid.

  2. Cook in a pot of boiling water for nearly 2 hours.

  3. Turn out onto a dish and pour drawn butter over it before serving.

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. Flour + milktop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and set into a firm, sliceable pudding as they cook.
Flour
Thickens the batter and gives the pudding its body as it cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness, loosening the batter into a tender custard-like texture.
Asparagus
Provides the main flavour and bulk, staying tender within the set batter.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a smooth, tender crumb.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour, then the milk mixed with baking soda. Adding the flour slowly while beating helps prevent lumps, so the batter stays smooth and evenly set when the eggs cook.

Swap the asparagus

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

  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, butter, flour, milk, 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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