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Puree Asparagus, Royal

A creamy puree of boiled asparagus with butter, broth, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Puree Asparagus, Royal

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Wash the asparagus and parboil for 4 minutes.

  2. Immerse in cold water to retain color, then drain.

  3. In a saucepan, melt the butter. Toss the asparagus gently over heat.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar.

  5. Add enough broth to cook the asparagus thoroughly. Add the parsley.

  6. Boil until tender.

Make the puree

  1. Pound the asparagus through a colander.

  2. Combine with the thickened broth or cream in a saucepan.

  3. Heat while stirring until it boils.

  4. Reduce to a slow boil for 25 minutes.

  5. Skim the mixture.

  6. Strain through a fine sieve.

  7. Keep warm in the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, add 4 ounces of butter.

  2. Add the diluted yolks, stirring well.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  4. Asparagus + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together566 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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 puree and supplies its green flavor and texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished puree.
Thickened chicken broth or cream
Provides the liquid base and body that carries the puree's texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the puree as they heat, giving it a smooth, velvety body.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat. If the puree boils after the yolks go in, they can scramble and curdle, leaving the texture grainy. Add them off the heat or at low heat, stirring constantly.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, chicken, parsley, 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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