Why it works: Asparagus and cream work together. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 838 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Asparagus Au Pois
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the tender part of the asparagus into pieces as long as the stems are thick.
Boil the asparagus until tender.
Make the sauce
Drain the asparagus and add it to a saucepan with the cream and salt.
Simmer until the sauce is thickened.
Serve
Serve like green peas.
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.
-
Asparagus + creamtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together838 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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 provides its vegetable flavor and tender texture.
- Cream
- Thickens on simmering to create the creamy sauce that coats the asparagus.
The step that matters
Simmer until the sauce is thickened. Cream thickens as its water evaporates and its fats and proteins concentrate. Simmering gently keeps it from scorching or breaking, so stop when it coats the asparagus.
“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.
You might also like
Asparagus Soup179 recipes
Asparagus Salad77 recipes
Cream of Asparagus38 recipes
Boiled Asparagus27 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.