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Broiled Asparagus

A dish of broiled asparagus served on buttered toast with parsley, lemon, and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Broiled Asparagus

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If using fresh asparagus, slightly boil it.

  2. If using canned asparagus, drain it for an hour.

  3. Toast the bread until light brown and butter it well.

Broil and serve

  1. Place the asparagus in a toaster or charcoal pan and broil until deep brown, watching carefully.

  2. Once browned, place the asparagus on the toast, cover with melted butter, and garnish with lettuce and lemon.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Asparagus + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the main vegetable layer and browns under the broiler for flavor.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the toast and coats the asparagus.
Bread (in the method)
Provides a crisp, sturdy base that holds the asparagus and absorbs butter.

The step that matters

Broiling the asparagus until deep brown. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs high dry heat and enough attention to develop flavor. Going too long can scorch the spears and make them bitter, so watching closely matters.

Swap the lettuce

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, parsley, lemon, 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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