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Asparagus and Eggs

A baked dish of boiled asparagus topped with eggs, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,968 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus and Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Cut the asparagus.

  2. Boil the asparagus until tender.

  3. Drain the asparagus.

Make the browned butter

  1. Brown the butter.

  2. Pour the browned butter over the asparagus, stirring well.

Add the eggs and bake

  1. Drop the eggs on top of the asparagus.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Cook in the oven until the eggs are firm.

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

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

  2. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 gives its mild, green flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and browning gives a nutty aroma.
Eggs
Set when heated to form a soft, sliceable structure over the asparagus.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs until just firm. Egg proteins set as they heat, and continued heating past that point makes them dry and rubbery, so the eggs should be checked and removed once the whites and yolks are firm.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, 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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