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Eggs with Asparagus

Eggs with asparagus is a scrambled egg dish served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Eggs with Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the eggs into a basin and beat them well.

  2. Add a little pepper, salt, and the asparagus to the eggs.

  3. Melt the butter in a stewpan over medium heat.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour the egg and asparagus mixture into the stewpan and stir constantly.

  2. Cook until the mixture thickens, then remove from heat.

  3. Serve immediately over toast.

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 + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + asparagustop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  4. Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into soft curds as they cook, forming the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, keeping the eggs tender and preventing them from sticking.
Asparagus
Adds vegetable flavour and a slight firmness against the soft egg curds.

The step that matters

Stirring the eggs constantly over medium heat. Egg proteins set quickly and can turn rubbery or lumpy if they cook too fast or unevenly. Constant stirring over moderate heat keeps the curds small and soft and the mixture creamy.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits about as well
  2. Peasthe original
  3. Almondfits about as well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, pepper, asparagus. 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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