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Asparagus Rolls

A savory roll filled with a creamy asparagus puree.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rolls

  1. Remove the crust from the bottom of each roll and scoop out the inside.

  2. Fry the rolls in hot fat or crisp them in the oven.

Make the asparagus filling

  1. Boil the asparagus until tender, then cut off the tips and keep them hot.

  2. Rub the stalks through a fine sieve to make a puree.

  3. In a saucepan, heat the butter, stir in the flour, and cook slightly.

  4. Add the milk and stir until boiling.

  5. Mix in the asparagus puree and egg yolks, season with salt and pepper.

  6. Stir over low heat until the mixture thickens, but do not let it boil.

Assemble and serve

  1. Fill the rolls with the mixture, piling it high, and garnish with asparagus tips.

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. Milk + buttertop 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. Milk + flourtop 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

Asparagus
Provides the main flavour and, pureed, the body of the filling.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavour, with the flour forming a base for it.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, giving it a creamy moisture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the warm sauce as it heats and add richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Thickening the filling over low heat. Egg yolks set when heated, so if the mixture boils it can curdle and turn grainy. Stirring over low heat thickens it smoothly without scrambling the eggs.

Swap the asparagus

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