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Asparagus Au Gratin

A baked dish of boiled asparagus mixed with butter, breadcrumbs, cream, cheese, and egg white, then baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Asparagus Au Gratin

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

  1. Boil the asparagus until tender, then drain.

Assemble

  1. In a bowl, mix the asparagus with melted butter, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, cream, grated cheese, and egg white.

  2. Fill buttered shells or individual ramekins with the mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (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

Egg white
Binds the mixture together and helps it set when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, giving the topping a light texture.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness so the mixture stays tender when baked.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding flavor and a golden crust.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the crumbs brown evenly.

The step that matters

Bake until golden brown. Baking long enough to brown the top sets the egg white and firms the custard-like mixture, while over-baking can dry it out and make it rubbery.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Asparagusthe original
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, bread, pepper, cream, cheese, egg. 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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