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Asparagus a LA Vinaigrette

A simple dish of boiled asparagus tossed in a vinaigrette of oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, cayenne, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 213 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus a LA Vinaigrette

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the asparagus

  1. Boil the asparagus until tender.

Dress and chill

  1. While hot, pour the dressing over the asparagus.

  2. To make the dressing, mix salad oil, vinegar, mustard, salt, cayenne, and sugar.

  3. Cover the dish and refrigerate for several hours before serving.

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. Asparagus + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together213 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
The main vegetable, which takes on the dressing's flavor while it is still warm.
Salad oil
Fat that carries the flavors and gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar
Acidity that sharpens the dressing and cuts through the oil.
French mustard
Helps hold the oil and vinegar together as a more stable, smooth emulsion.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the vinegar and balances the dressing's flavor.

The step that matters

Pour the dressing while the asparagus is hot. Warm asparagus absorbs dressing more readily than cold asparagus, so the flavor penetrates the spears instead of sitting only on the surface.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, mustard, pepper, sugar):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Radishfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, mustard, pepper, sugar. 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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