Name: Shrimps and Asparagus Tips in Cream Sauce
Ingredients: Shrimps; Asparagus tips; Cream; Shrimp butter; Coarse sea salt

Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓

Shrimps and Asparagus Tips in Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Scrape the bottom part of the asparagus stems and soak them in cold water.
Tie the asparagus in bunches of a dozen or more.
Cut the bottom part of the asparagus to ensure uniform length.
Cook the asparagus in lightly salted boiling water until tender but not overdone.
Drain the asparagus and serve on a napkin.
Serve the cream sauce and shrimp butter separately.

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Shrimp + buttertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,931 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Shrimp + asparagustop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together134 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,026 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Shrimp + creamtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,067 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).