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Asparagus Peas

A buttery asparagus dish thickened with flour, sugar, egg yolks, and cream, seasoned with parsley, green onions, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 566 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Asparagus Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Slice the asparagus and cut it into equal-sized pieces, discarding any tough parts.

  2. Soak the asparagus in cold water.

  3. Boil the asparagus in salted water until three-quarters cooked, then drain and dry on a cloth.

Cook and finish

  1. In a stewpan, combine the asparagus with butter, parsley, and onions, and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.

  2. Sprinkle in a little flour, add the sugar, and moisten with boiling water.

  3. Cook until slightly thickened, then remove the parsley and onions.

  4. Thicken the mixture with the beaten egg yolks and cream, season with salt, and serve when just simmering.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the main body of the dish and supplies its fresh, vegetal flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as the asparagus cooks gently.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so it becomes a light coating sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the sauce when gently heated, giving it a smooth body.
Cream
Adds richness and a silkier texture to the thickened sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening with egg yolks and cream. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, and if the mixture boils they can scramble and curdle. Serving once just simmering keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, butter, parsley, flour, sugar, egg, cream):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, parsley, flour, sugar, egg, cream. 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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