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To Boil Asparagus

A boiled asparagus dish served with toasted bread, butter, and optional vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

To Boil Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Scrape the stems of the asparagus clean, leaving 1 to 2 inches of the green tips.

  2. Cut the large ends of the asparagus evenly.

  3. Tie the asparagus in equal-sized bunches.

  4. Place the asparagus in cold water as you finish.

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut a slice of bread ½ inch thick.

  2. Remove the crust from the bread slice.

  3. Toast the bread slice until golden brown on both sides.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil plenty of water and add the asparagus.

  2. Cook the asparagus until tender, about 20 to 25 minutes.

  3. Once the asparagus is tender, remove it immediately to preserve color and flavor.

  4. Dip the toasted bread quickly into the boiling water.

  5. Place the asparagus on top of the bread with the tips meeting in the center.

  6. Serve with rich melted butter.

  7. Optionally stir in a small amount of vinegar.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Asparagus + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Is the main vegetable, cooked until tender in boiling water.
Bread
Forms a toasted base that soaks up moisture and flavor from the asparagus.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that complements the asparagus when melted over the top.

The step that matters

Remove the asparagus as soon as it is tender. Asparagus keeps cooking in its own heat after leaving the water. Removing it promptly preserves its bright green color and fresh flavor, so it does not turn dull or overcooked.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, vinegar. 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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