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Asparagus, Fricasseed

A fricassee of asparagus, lettuce, endive, onion, butter, flour, stock, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and endive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 284 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Asparagus, Fricasseed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the asparagus and cut off the tender portions.

  2. Soak the asparagus in cold water until needed, then drain and chop it.

  3. Chop the lettuce, endive, and onion.

Make the fricassee

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

  2. Stir in the flour until smooth, then gradually add the stock.

  3. Add the chopped vegetables, pepper, and salt.

  4. Let the mixture stew gently for about 30 minutes until the sauce thickens.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Lettuce + endivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Asparagus + endivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Asparagus + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

  4. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  5. Endive + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together111 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the main body of the dish and supplies its fresh, vegetal flavor.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and adds a rich, round flavor.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and carries the seasoning.
Lettuce
Softens as it stews, adding moisture and mild, sweet vegetable flavor.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stewed sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the butter. Flour must be stirred until smooth before the stock is added gradually; adding liquid too fast can form lumps that are hard to remove, so the sauce will not thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, lettuce, endive, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Beetrootfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, lettuce, endive, butter, flour, pepper. 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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