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Pointes D'asperges En Petits Pois — Asparagus Tips As Peas

A simple dish of boiled asparagus tips tossed in butter, salt, and sugar, optionally served with truffles and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and truffle work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 141 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pointes D'asperges En Petits Pois — Asparagus Tips As Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the asparagus tips to about 1 inch in length.

  2. Clean and wash the tips in several waters.

Cook and season

  1. Boil water with a little baking soda to keep the asparagus green.

  2. Add the asparagus tips to the boiling water and cook until tender.

  3. Drain the asparagus and toss them in butter.

  4. Season with salt and a pinch of sugar.

Serve

  1. If using, cut truffles the same size as the asparagus and toss them in butter.

  2. Serve the asparagus with a hollow in the center filled with truffles and drizzle with gravy or beef extract.

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 + truffletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Truffle + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together815 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

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

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus tips
Forms the main body of the dish and its tender green texture when cooked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a glossy coating on the warm asparagus.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness that balances the salt and the vegetable's flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking the asparagus until tender. Asparagus goes from bright green and crisp to dull olive and mushy within a short time. Pulling it as soon as it is tender keeps its colour and texture, and the baking soda in the water helps the green hold.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, truffle, veal):

  1. Asparagusthe original
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, truffle, veal. 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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