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To Cook Asparagus

A simple boiled asparagus dish seasoned with butter, pepper, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

To Cook Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil 2 quarts of water with salt and baking soda.

  2. Scrape the hard ends of the asparagus and add it to the boiling water.

  3. Cook until tender, about 30 minutes.

  4. Drain the water and season with butter, pepper, and a little milk to thicken.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus (in the method)
Is the main vegetable cooked until tender in the boiling water.
Baking soda
Raises the water's alkalinity, which helps asparagus soften during boiling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to coat the cooked asparagus.
Milk
Added in small amount to thicken the seasoning and add creaminess.

The step that matters

Cook until tender, about 30 minutes. Asparagus turns mushy if overcooked, while undercooked spears stay fibrous. Check tenderness with a fork or knife near the end of cooking, since thickness varies between spears.

“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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