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Asparagus Dressing

A creamy dressing made with butter, flour, asparagus water, onion, white pepper, egg yolk, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,212 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and stir until combined.

  3. Pour in the asparagus water and add the onion and white pepper.

Finish the dressing

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolk and vinegar.

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. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + asparagustop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps carry the dressing's fat-soluble aroma.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as its starch swells and gelatinizes with heat.
Asparagus water
Serves as the main liquid, bringing the dressing's vegetable flavor.
Egg yolk
Thickens and enriches the dressing as its proteins set gently and its fats add body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the butter and yolk.

The step that matters

Remove from heat before stirring in the egg yolk. Egg yolk proteins begin to set around 65°C (150°F). Adding it to a very hot base can scramble it into lumps. Taking the pan off the heat first lets the yolk thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, asparagus, onion, egg, vinegar):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, asparagus, onion, egg, vinegar. 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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