Name: Asparagus a LA Vinaigrette
Ingredients: 1 pound asparagus; 3 tablespoons salad oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 1 teaspoon French mustard; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 2 teaspoons sugar

Why it works: Asparagus and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 213 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus a LA Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Directions

Cook and dress

Boil the asparagus until tender.
While hot, pour the dressing made of salad oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, cayenne, and sugar over the asparagus.

Chill

Cover the dish tightly and refrigerate for several hours before serving.

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.

Asparagus + mustardtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together213 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,968 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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 absorbs the dressing as it cools.
Salad oil: Carries the flavor and gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the dressing and balances the oil.
French mustard: Helps emulsify the oil and vinegar so the dressing stays blended.
Sugar: Adds a touch of sweetness that rounds out the acidity and heat.

The step that matters

Dressing the asparagus while hot. Warm asparagus absorbs the dressing more readily than cold, so pouring it on while hot helps the flavor penetrate the spears. Covering and chilling afterward lets the flavors meld.

Swap the asparagus

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

Horseradishfits better
Capsicumfits better
Radishfits better
Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, pepper, sugar. 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.

Asparagus Soup179 recipes

Asparagus Salad77 recipes

Cream of Asparagus38 recipes

Boiled Asparagus27 recipes

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Asparagus a LA Vinaigrette