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Asparagus Peas

A creamy asparagus dish made with butter, sugar, salt, pepper, cream, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream 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 Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Cut the tops from the asparagus.

  2. Boil the asparagus tops in salted water for 15 minutes.

  3. Drain the asparagus in a colander.

Make the cream sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the butter, sugar, salt, pepper, cream, and egg yolk.

  2. Toss gently over heat for a moment.

Serve

  1. Serve quickly in a heated dish.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the sauce a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Egg yolk
Emulsifies with the cream and butter and thickens the sauce as it gently heats.
Cream
Adds moisture and body, helping form a smooth, pourable sauce.
Sugar
Adds mild sweetness that balances the savory asparagus and salt.

The step that matters

Toss gently over heat for a moment. Egg yolk thickens when heated but can scramble if it gets too hot or is overcooked. Brief, gentle heat keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, pepper, cream, egg. 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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