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Asparagus Peas

A side dish of boiled asparagus with butter, parsley, onions, flour, sugar, and a thickened egg‑cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Asparagus Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Carefully scrape the asparagus, cut it into pieces of equal size, avoiding that which is least hard or tough, and throw them into cold water.

  2. Boil the asparagus in salt and water until three-parts done; take it out, drain, and place it on a cloth to dry the moisture away from it.

Make the sauce

  1. Put the asparagus into a stewpan with the butter, parsley, and onions, and shake over a brisk fire for 10 minutes.

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

  3. When boiled a short time and reduced, take out the parsley and onions, thicken with the yolks of two eggs beaten with the cream; add a seasoning of salt, and, when the whole is on the point of simmering, serve.

  4. Make the sauce sufficiently thick to adhere to the vegetable.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

223Calories
8 gProtein
11 gFat
24 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Cream + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

Cream and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus (in the method)
Is the main vegetable; boiling softens it to a tender, cookable texture.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the sauce as they set gently with the cream.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, helping it coat the vegetable.
Flour (in the method)
Lightly thickens the cooking liquid so the sauce clings to the asparagus.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg and cream. Egg yolks set when heated, but if the mixture gets too hot or boils, it can curdle and turn grainy. Add it off the heat or keep it just below a simmer, stirring constantly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, onion, sugar, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, onion, sugar, 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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