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Asparagus, French Method of Cooking

A dish of boiled asparagus mixed with onion and egg yolk, served on toast with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,212 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus, French Method of Cooking

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Wash and boil the asparagus for about 20 minutes.

  2. Drain the asparagus and cut off the heads and 2 inches of the tender part of the stalks.

  3. Mince the asparagus and mix it with the chopped onion.

Make the topping

  1. Add the beaten egg yolk, salt, and pepper to the mixture.

  2. Heat the mixture.

Assemble and serve

  1. Place the mixture on the slice of toast.

  2. Pour sauce over it.

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 + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

  5. Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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 topping and gives its vegetable flavour and texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the minced mixture together and thickens it as it heats.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and a mild sharp flavour to the mixture.

The step that matters

Heating the egg yolk mixture. Egg yolk thickens with gentle heat but can scramble or curdle if it gets too hot or heats too fast. Keeping the heat moderate and stirring keeps the mixture smooth and cohesive on the toast.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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