Why it works: Asparagus and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,026 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Boiled Asparagus
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the asparagus until tender.
Drain the asparagus and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Pour melted butter over the asparagus before serving.
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.
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Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,026 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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 and carries the flavor of salt and butter.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel to the cooked asparagus.
The step that matters
Boil the asparagus until tender. Boiling for too short a time leaves the stalks fibrous and woody, while overcooking makes them soft and dull in color. Checking for tenderness at intervals helps achieve a firm but tender texture.
“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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