Skip to main content
Main

Asparagus Salad

A salad of boiled asparagus tossed with a vinaigrette of vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Asparagus Salad

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 ↓

Asparagus Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the asparagus

  1. Boil the asparagus stalks in salted water until tender.

  2. Lay the cooked asparagus on a salad dish.

Dress and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper to create a dressing.

  2. Drizzle the dressing over the asparagus and 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.

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

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

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Asparagus + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the body of the salad and provides its tender, cooked texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the oil.
Oil
Carries flavor and gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil the asparagus until tender. Overcooking makes asparagus soft and dull in color, while undercooking leaves it fibrous. Timing the boil by tenderness rather than by a fixed clock gives the best texture.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, 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.

More asparagus salad recipes

with Eggs 3with Shrimp 3 See all 66 →

You might also like

Asparagus SoupAsparagus Soup179 recipesCream of AsparagusCream of Asparagus38 recipesBoiled AsparagusBoiled Asparagus27 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes