Name: Salad of Asparagus
Ingredients: 3 large asparagus; cold water; slices of lemon; 1 teaspoon mustard; 2 tablespoons oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salad of Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

Scale and cut off the heads of the asparagus.
Boil the asparagus until nearly done, then strain.
Place the asparagus in cold water for 5 minutes, then drain well.

Assemble and serve

Arrange the asparagus in rows on a dish and place lemon slices around the rim.
Mix the mustard, oil, vinegar, cayenne pepper, and salt, then pour over the asparagus just before serving.

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.

Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Asparagus + mustardtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together213 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Asparagus + lemontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together704 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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 salad and stays tender-crisp after boiling and chilling.
Oil: Carries the dressing and coats the asparagus, adding richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Mustard: Helps emulsify the oil and vinegar so the dressing clings to the asparagus.

The step that matters

Boil the asparagus until nearly done. Asparagus keeps cooking from residual heat, so stopping at nearly done and cooling it in cold water preserves a bright green color and a tender-crisp texture. Overcooking turns it dull and soft.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, mustard, vinegar, pepper):

Horseradishfits better
Broccolifits better
Shallotfits better
Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, mustard, vinegar, 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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Salad of Asparagus