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 ↓
Boiled Asparagus
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the asparagus
Wash the asparagus in cold water.
Peel the white ends of the asparagus.
Place each stalk in cold water.
Tie the asparagus into small bundles.
Boil the asparagus and toast the bread
Add the bundles to a kettle of boiling water.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt and boil for 20 minutes.
While the asparagus is boiling, toast the bread.
Cut off the crusts of the toast.
Butter the toast while hot.
Place the toast on a heated platter.
Once the asparagus is done, drain it.
Cut the strings from the asparagus.
Place the asparagus on the toast with the heads facing one way.
Make the sauce and serve
In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter.
Add 1 tablespoon of flour to the butter and mix until smooth.
Stir in ½ cup of the water used to boil the asparagus, stirring continually until smooth and boiling.
Season the sauce with ¼ teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper.
Pour the sauce over the asparagus and serve.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,968 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together363 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
What each ingredient does
- Asparagus
- Forms the main vegetable body of the dish, cooked until tender by boiling.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavor to the toast and carries the flavor of the sauce.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the butter and water mixture into a smooth sauce as it heats.
- Stale bread
- Serves as a sturdy base that soaks up butter and holds the asparagus.
The step that matters
Stirring the sauce while it thickens. Flour mixed into hot butter and liquid can form lumps if not stirred continually. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the sauce turns smooth as it comes to a boil.
Swap the asparagus
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, flour, pepper):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Asparagusthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, flour, 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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