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Asparagus-peas

A side dish of boiled asparagus pieces sautéed with butter, parsley, onions, flour, sugar, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 566 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Asparagus-peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Scrape the asparagus and cut into equal-sized pieces, discarding tough parts.

  2. Soak the asparagus in cold water, then boil in salted water until three-quarters cooked.

  3. Drain the asparagus and place on a cloth to dry.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt butter and add parsley and onions, cooking over medium heat for 10 minutes.

  2. Dredge in a little flour, add sugar, and mix well.

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 + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together566 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melts to form the base of the sauce, adding richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the buttery mixture so the sauce clings to the asparagus.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and help thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, softening the sauce's texture.

The step that matters

Boiling the asparagus until three-quarters cooked. Stopping before full doneness leaves the spears tender but still firm; overcooking turns them soft and dull in colour, and the spears keep cooking slightly as they cool and are added to the sauce.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, butter, parsley, flour, sugar, egg, cream):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, parsley, flour, sugar, egg, cream. 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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