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Asparagus Forced in French Roll

A French roll stuffed with a creamy asparagus mixture and topped with asparagus greens.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Asparagus Forced in French Roll

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rolls

  1. Cut the top crust off the rolls and remove the crumbs, keeping the crusts intact.

  2. Fry the rolls in fresh butter until brown.

Make the filling

  1. Combine cream, beaten egg yolks, salt, and nutmeg in a saucepan.

  2. Stir the mixture over low heat until it thickens.

  3. Cut the boiled asparagus into small pieces, reserving enough tops for garnish.

  4. Add the small asparagus pieces to the cream mixture.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the rolls with the cream and asparagus mixture.

  2. Make holes in the top crusts before placing them back on the rolls.

  3. Insert the reserved asparagus tops to resemble growing asparagus.

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

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

  2. Nutmeg + asparagustop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + asparagustop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture as they set when gently heated, giving the filling body.
Cream
Forms the rich, smooth base of the filling and adds moisture.
Fresh butter
Fat that browns the rolls and adds richness and flavour to the crust.
French rolls
Hollowed-out shells that hold the filling and provide a crisp, sturdy structure.

The step that matters

Stir the cream mixture over low heat until it thickens. Egg yolks set at moderate temperatures, and high heat can curdle them into lumps. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, egg, nutmeg. 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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