Name: Chicken with Asparagus
Ingredients: 1 young chicken, cut into 6-8 parts; 1 tablespoon butter; ½ cup stock; 1 pound asparagus tips; salt; pepper

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 ↓

Chicken with Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Salt the chicken pieces.
Melt the butter in a pot until it starts to bubble.
Add the chicken and some pepper, turning the pieces once.
Immediately add the stock and bring to a boil.
Add the asparagus tips and boil for 5 minutes.
Cover the pot and place it in the Caloric oven.

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.

Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,968 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + asparagustop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together539 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Butter + asparagustop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,026 recipes

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