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Puree Asparagus, Royal

A creamy puree of boiled asparagus with butter, broth, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Puree Asparagus, Royal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Wash the asparagus and parboil for 4 minutes.

  2. Immerse in cold water to retain color, then drain.

  3. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  4. Toss the asparagus gently over heat.

  5. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a little sugar.

  6. Add enough broth to cook the asparagus thoroughly.

  7. Include the parsley.

  8. Boil until tender.

Make the purée

  1. Pound the asparagus through a colander.

  2. Combine with the thickened broth or cream in a saucepan.

  3. Heat while stirring until it boils.

  4. Reduce to a slow boil for 25 minutes.

  5. Skim the mixture.

  6. Strain through a fine sieve, then keep warm in the saucepan.

  7. Before serving, add the butter and the diluted yolks of the eggs while stirring well.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Asparagus + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together566 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the bulk and the green flavour of the purée.
Thickened chicken broth or cream
Provides the liquid base and body that carries the asparagus purée.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished purée.
Raw egg yolks
Enriches and thickens the purée when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat and can scramble or curdle if the purée boils after they are added. Keep it warm, not boiling, and stir constantly while incorporating them.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, chicken, parsley, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, chicken, parsley, egg. 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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