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Buttered Eggs with Asparagus

Hard-boiled eggs topped with sautéed asparagus, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,968 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Buttered Eggs with Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Boil the eggs until hard, about 10 minutes.

  2. Cool and peel the eggs.

  3. Cook the asparagus in boiling water until tender, about 5 minutes.

  4. Drain the asparagus and set aside.

Sauté and serve

  1. In a pan, melt butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the asparagus and sauté for a few minutes.

  3. Slice the hard-boiled eggs in half and place them on a serving dish.

  4. Top the eggs with the sautéed asparagus, season with salt and pepper, and serve warm.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Hard-boiled whites and yolks provide the main protein and substance of the dish.
Asparagus
Provides the tender, green vegetable texture and fresh, grassy flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when sautéing the asparagus, aiding light browning.

The step that matters

Boil the eggs until hard. Eggs boiled too long can develop a grey-green ring around the yolk, and eggs boiled too briefly stay runny. Timing the boil and then cooling the eggs quickly keeps the yolks set and easy to peel.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, 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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