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Asparagus and Egos

A hot dish of beaten eggs mixed with asparagus, seasoned, cooked in butter, served over toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Asparagus and Egos

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the eggs

  1. Beat the eggs in a dish.

  2. Add the asparagus, salt, and pepper to the eggs and mix well.

Cook

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Pour the egg and asparagus mixture into the saucepan.

  3. Stir continuously until the mixture thickens.

Serve

  1. Serve the mixture over toasted bread on a hot dish.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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
Set into a soft, thickened mass that binds the asparagus together.
Asparagus
Adds a tender, vegetal texture and mild flavour to the eggs.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the eggs from sticking to the saucepan.

The step that matters

Stir continuously until the mixture thickens. Eggs set from the outside inward when heated. Constant stirring keeps the curds small and tender, while standing still over heat can cause them to overcook and turn rubbery or lumpy.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

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