Name: Creamed Asparagus
Ingredients: brittle part of asparagus stalks; water; salt; butter; cream or sauce

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Creamed Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the asparagus and remove any scales.
Cook the asparagus in boiling salted water for 20 minutes or until tender.
Drain the asparagus and place it in a hot dish or on buttered toast.
Pour cream or a sauce over the asparagus.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,026 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Asparagus + creamtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together838 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).