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Asparagus on Toast

A simple dish of boiled asparagus served on toasted bread with a butter‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Asparagus on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Remove the string from the asparagus.

  2. Rinse the asparagus well in cold water to remove grit.

  3. Tie the asparagus loosely with a broad band of muslin.

  4. Place the asparagus in an asparagus boiler.

  5. Pour 1 quart of boiling water over the asparagus.

  6. Add ½ teaspoon of salt.

  7. Cook gently for 20 minutes.

  8. Reserve 12 stalks for a salad.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in 1 tablespoon of flour.

  3. Stir in ¼ teaspoon of salt.

  4. Stir in a pinch of pepper.

  5. Add ⅓ cup of the asparagus cooking water.

  6. Cook for a few minutes until thickened.

Serve

  1. Place the asparagus on two slices of toasted bread moistened with asparagus water.

  2. Pour the sauce over the asparagus.

  3. Serve.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish, cooked gently until tender.
Butter
Melts to form the fat base of the sauce, adding richness and smooth texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cooking water into a smooth, cohesive sauce.
Bread
Provides a crisp, absorbent base that holds the asparagus and soaks up moisture.

The step that matters

Cook for a few minutes until thickened. Flour must be cooked in the melted butter and liquid long enough to swell and set the sauce; undercooking leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin texture.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, flour, 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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