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Veal with Asparagus

A simple veal dish with asparagus, egg yolk butter sauce, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Veal with Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a hot pan, combine the yolks of the hard boiled eggs with melted butter to form a paste.

  2. Heat the mixture with the milk or cream, stirring well.

  3. Add the veal cubes and asparagus tips, then season with salt and pepper.

  4. Cook for five minutes.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Milk + asparagustop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

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

  4. Egg + asparagustop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard boiled egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness as they blend into a smooth paste.
Melted butter
Adds fat and smoothness, helping the yolks blend into a paste.
Milk or thin cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and adds creaminess.
Veal
Provides the main protein; tender cubes stay moist in the creamy sauce.
Asparagus tips
Add a tender, green vegetable element and a mild, fresh flavour.

The step that matters

Heat the yolk mixture with the milk or cream gently while stirring. Egg yolks thicken when heated but can curdle or turn grainy if they get too hot or are not stirred. Stirring well and keeping the heat moderate helps the sauce stay smooth.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, milk, veal, 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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