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Asparagus Pudding

A baked dish of asparagus, ham, eggs, flour, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Pudding

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 batter

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and gradually add the egg yolks, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the flour, chopped ham, salt, pepper, and enough milk to create a light dough.

  4. Fold in the whipped egg whites and the asparagus pieces.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a pudding form and place it in the oven for about 2½ hours.

  2. Once done, turn the pudding out onto a platter and pour melted butter over it.

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 + milktop 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. Flour + milktop 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten it and help it rise.
Flour
Provides structure, setting the batter into a firm, sliceable pudding as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and its creaming with the yolks helps build a smooth batter.
Asparagus
Supplies the main vegetable flavor and moisture within the pudding.
Chopped ham
Adds savory flavor and salty depth to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that gives the pudding its lift. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a dense pudding, so fold gently with a spatula until just combined.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, flour, ham, pepper, milk. 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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