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Eggs. with Asparagus.

A boiled asparagus and egg dish seasoned with nutmeg, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Eggs. with Asparagus.

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the asparagus in salted water for 15 minutes, then drain.

  2. Beat the eggs just enough to mix the yolks and whites.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, combine the eggs, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and warm water.

  2. Cook over low heat, stirring until thickened.

  3. Add the butter and stir for 5 minutes.

  4. Mix in the asparagus and simmer for 15 minutes 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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Asparagus + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Coagulate as they heat, setting the dish into a thickened, tender custard.
Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable flavour and a tender, slightly firm texture in the set eggs.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel and helps keep the eggs creamy.

The step that matters

Cook the eggs over low heat, stirring until thickened. Egg proteins set at fairly low temperatures, and high heat or lack of stirring can overcook the bottom into curdled, grainy pieces. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, nutmeg, pepper, butter. 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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