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 ↓
Creamed 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
Reject the lower halves of the asparagus stalks and boil the upper halves until very tender.
Drain and chop the asparagus.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, cook the butter and flour together until bubbling.
Pour in the milk with the baking soda dissolved in it, stirring until smooth and creamy.
Add the chopped asparagus, salt, and pepper to taste.
Set the mixture aside to cool, then beat in the eggs and cream.
Bake and brown
Pour into a greased pudding dish and bake covered at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.
Uncover and brown the top.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,968 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 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
- Asparagus
- Provides the main vegetable flavor and body of the dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the roux base.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy sauce with the butter.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and creaminess.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the custard-like structure.
- Baking soda
- Alters the milk's acidity and helps the top brown more readily.
The step that matters
Beating in the eggs after cooling. Adding beaten eggs to a hot sauce can scramble them, leaving a grainy texture. Letting the mixture cool first lets the eggs blend in smoothly and set evenly in the oven.
Swap the asparagus
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg, cream):
- Potatofits about as well
- Asparagusthe original
- Leekfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg, cream. 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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