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Asparagus Salad

A salad of boiled asparagus seasoned with salt, pepper, vinegar, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Asparagus Salad

Why it works: Asparagus and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,096 recipes. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Asparagus Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape and wash the asparagus without cutting it.

  2. Boil the asparagus in salted water until soft, ensuring the heads are not damaged.

  3. Drain the water and add pepper, salt, and strong vinegar; let it cool.

Serve

  1. Arrange the asparagus with the heads in the center of the dish.

  2. Mix the vinegar used with good olive oil and pour it over the asparagus.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,096 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 carries the flavor of the dressing.
Strong vinegar
Adds sharp acidity that contrasts with the mild, sweet flavor of the asparagus.
Good olive oil
Adds fat and a smooth texture that coats the asparagus and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the asparagus until soft without damaging the heads. Overcooking makes the spears limp and mushy, while the delicate tips break easily when handled. Boiling only until tender keeps the texture firm enough to hold its shape and keeps the tips intact for arranging.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, olive. 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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