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Asparagus with Cream Dressing

A dish of boiled asparagus served on toast topped with a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 with Cream Dressing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Tie the asparagus stalks in bunches with the heads facing the same way and cut them to equal lengths.

  2. Boil the asparagus in well-salted water until tender, then drain well.

  3. Arrange the drained asparagus neatly on the slices of toast.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add the cream, stirring until smooth, then add the egg and season with pepper and salt.

  3. Cook the sauce over low heat until it thickens, then pour it over the asparagus.

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the roux that thickens the sauce.
All-purpose flour
Forms a roux with the butter, thickening the sauce as it cooks.
Heavy cream
Forms the body of the sauce, giving it a smooth, rich texture.
Egg
Adds richness and helps thicken the sauce as it cooks.
Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable, cooked until tender and served on toast.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce over low heat until it thickens. Egg proteins can curdle and turn grainy if the sauce gets too hot, so gentle heat keeps the cream smooth while it thickens.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Spinachfits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, cream, 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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