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Asparagus Baked with Cheese

A baked asparagus dish topped with a creamy cheese sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Baked with Cheese

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

  2. Trim the asparagus and cook in boiling water for 5 minutes.

  3. Drain and place the asparagus in a baking dish.

Make the cheese sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, stir in the flour, and cook for 1 minute.

  2. Gradually add the milk, stirring until thickened.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then stir in the cheese until melted.

Bake

  1. Pour the cheese sauce over the asparagus.

  2. Bake for 20 minutes until bubbly and golden.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Forms the vegetable base and gives the bake its main body and bite.
Butter
Provides fat that combines with flour to start the sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, cohesive cheese sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the sauce, which thickens as the flour cooks in.
Cheese
Melts into the sauce to add savory flavor and a creamy texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the milk into the roux. Adding milk gradually while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, butter, flour, milk, 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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