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Asparagus Upon Toast

A dish of boiled asparagus served atop buttered crustless toast, seasoned with salt, pepper, and extra butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 Upon Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Trim the woody ends from the asparagus and tie the bunch with soft string.

  2. Cook the asparagus in salted boiling water for about 25 minutes.

Make the toast

  1. Prepare slices of crustless toast and dip each slice in the asparagus cooking liquid.

  2. Butter the toast generously while hot and place on a heated dish.

Assemble and serve

  1. Drain the asparagus and arrange it on top of the toast.

  2. Season with pepper, salt, and additional butter.

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

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

  4. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 topping, providing its own vegetal flavour and a tender bite when cooked.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the toast and carries flavour across the dish.
Crustless bread
Forms the base that soaks up the cooking liquid and butter, giving a soft, flavourful layer.

The step that matters

Cook the asparagus in salted boiling water for about 25 minutes. Overcooking turns asparagus soft and olive-drab, while undercooking leaves it fibrous. Timing the boil so the spears are just tender keeps their colour and texture.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, 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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