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Asparagus Loaf

A baked loaf made with butter, flour, salt, paprika, cream, cooked asparagus tips, and eggs, served with cream sauce.

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 Loaf

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 mold

  1. Butter a 3‑pint mold or bowl thickly and decorate the bottom and sides with cooked asparagus stalks.

Make the custard

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a double boiler, then stir in the flour, salt, and paprika.

  2. Gradually add the cream, cooked asparagus tips, and beaten eggs, mixing well.

  3. Pour the mixture into the mold.

Cook and serve

  1. Cook in a dish of hot water until the center is firm, either in the oven at 350°F (175°C) or on top of the stove without boiling the water.

  2. Invert onto a serving dish.

  3. Serve surrounded by a cream sauce with added asparagus tips, or without sauce.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + asparagustop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
Set the custard so the loaf holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the loaf tender.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and greases the mold so the loaf releases.
Flour
Thickens the mixture slightly, giving the loaf body.
Cooked asparagus tips
Provide the main flavor and texture throughout the loaf.

The step that matters

Cook in a dish of hot water until the center is firm. Gentle, indirect heat in a water bath cooks egg custard evenly. If the water boils, the eggs can overcook, turning the loaf rough and spongy.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Asparagusthe original
  4. Shallotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, 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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