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Asparagus Forced in French Rolls

A French roll stuffed with a creamy asparagus filling.

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 Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rolls

  1. Remove the crumb from the French rolls, cutting off a piece of the crust neatly.

  2. Fry the rolls in fresh butter until brown.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine cream, egg yolks, salt, and nutmeg; stir over low heat until thickened.

  2. Boil the asparagus; save the tops for garnish and chop the rest into small pieces.

  3. Mix the chopped asparagus into the cream mixture and fill the rolls with it.

Garnish and assemble

  1. Make holes in the top crust of the rolls to insert the asparagus tops, then replace the crust.

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

French rolls
Form the hollow shell that holds the filling and is browned by frying.
Fresh butter
Fries the rolls, adding fat and browning to the crust.
Cream
Forms the body of the custard filling, giving it richness and softness.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream as they set over low heat, giving a smooth custard texture.
Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable flavour and texture in the filling and as garnish.

The step that matters

Stir the cream and egg yolk mixture over low heat until thickened. Egg yolks set when heated, and high heat can curdle them into lumps. Gentle, constant stirring over low heat gives a smooth custard that holds its shape in the filling.

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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