Name: Asparagus Dressing
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon flour; asparagus water; ¼ onion (finely chopped); ¼ teaspoon white pepper; 1 egg yolk; 1 tablespoon vinegar

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 Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour and cook for a minute.
Add asparagus water and chopped onion, then season with white pepper.
Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolk and vinegar.

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 + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,212 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + asparagustop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together936 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,226 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, asparagus, onion, egg, vinegar):

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits better
Garlicfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, asparagus, onion, egg, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.