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Asparagus and Eggs

A dish of boiled asparagus mixed with beaten eggs, cream, butter, salt, pepper, and served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Asparagus and Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Cut the asparagus into ½-inch lengths.

  2. Boil the asparagus in salted water for 10 minutes or until tender.

Make the eggs

  1. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  2. Stir the cream, melted butter, salt, and pepper into the egg yolks.

  3. Drain the asparagus and mix it with the egg yolks.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a buttered saucepan and stir in the egg whites.

  5. Heat through and serve garnished with croutons.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (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 + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  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

Eggs
Whites and yolks set on heat to give the dish its soft, custardy structure.
Asparagus
Provides the main bulk and tender texture that the eggs bind around.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the eggs softer and more tender.

The step that matters

Stir the egg whites in gently. Whipped or separately beaten whites hold air that gives lightness; overmixing deflates them, and gentle folding keeps the eggs tender while they heat through.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, 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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