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Asparagus Cakes

A fried cake made from asparagus, eggs, and breadcrumbs, seasoned with salt, pepper, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Asparagus Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cakes

  1. Drain the asparagus and cut it into half‑inch lengths.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs well and add the asparagus.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and parsley or marjoram.

  4. Gradually mix in the bread crumbs until the mixture can be molded.

  5. Shape the mixture into small balls, then flatten them into cakes about ½ inch thick and 2 inches in diameter.

  6. Let the cakes stand for a while, then brush with egg white and roll in bread crumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot oil until golden brown and drain well.

  2. Garnish with fried parsley before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Asparagus + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together566 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 recipes

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

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture together and help the cakes hold their shape.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the cakes body so they can be molded and form a crisp coating.
Asparagus
Provides the main flavour and bulk of the cakes.

The step that matters

Gradually mixing in the bread crumbs. Adding crumbs too fast can leave the mixture either too wet to shape or too dry and crumbly. Adding them gradually lets you stop once the mixture holds together when molded, so the cakes keep their shape in the hot oil.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, pepper, parsley. 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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