Why it works: Asparagus and almond share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 94 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Asparagus with Nut Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the finely sliced asparagus in water until very tender, adding salt a few moments before done.
In a separate bowl, dissolve the almond or raw peanut butter in the asparagus cooking water.
Pour the almond cream over the cooked asparagus and serve warm.
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 + almondtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together94 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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 becomes tender when cooked through.
- Almond or raw peanut butter
- Adds richness and body to the cooking liquid, turning it into a creamy sauce.
The step that matters
Dissolving the nut butter in the cooking water. Nut butter is mostly fat and solids that blend smoothly only into warm, well-stirred liquid. Dissolving it in the hot asparagus water helps it form an even cream rather than clumps.
“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.
You might also like
Asparagus Soup179 recipes
Asparagus Salad77 recipes
Almond Soup60 recipes
Cream of Asparagus38 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.