Name: Asparagus Tops, with Teufeles, Imperial
Ingredients: 2 pounds asparagus tops; 1 small piece of butter; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Truffles, cut in Julienne; Reduced Madeira wine sauce; Chopped parsley for garnish

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 Tops, with Teufeles, Imperial

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the asparagus tops by cutting them into 1‑inch pieces.
Cook the asparagus until tender.

Finish and serve

Combine the cooked asparagus with butter, salt, and pepper in a flat saucepan and warm the mixture thoroughly.
Serve the asparagus on a dish, leaving space in the center.
Fill the center with the julienne truffles and drizzle with the reduced Madeira wine sauce.
Sprinkle a pinch of chopped parsley over the dish 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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Asparagus + parsleytop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together566 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,968 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Asparagus + truffletop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together141 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,209 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus: Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its tender, green vegetable base.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, coating the asparagus and giving it a smooth mouthfeel.
Truffles: Contribute a concentrated earthy aroma that defines the dish.
Madeira wine sauce: Adds sweetness and depth through its reduced, concentrated wine flavour.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, truffle, madeira wine, sauce, parsley):

Shallotfits better
Carrotfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, truffle, madeira wine, sauce, 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.