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Sauce

Asparagus Sauce, for Lamb Cutlets

A sauce of boiled asparagus mixed with veal gravy, egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and lemon work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 704 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Asparagus Sauce, for Lamb Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Cut the tender points of the asparagus into half‑inch lengths and wash the asparagus well, then drain.

Cook the asparagus

  1. Boil in plenty of salted water until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Drain thoroughly in a hot strainer.

Finish the sauce

  1. Just before serving, mix the asparagus with the thickened veal gravy and egg yolks, seasoning with salt and cayenne or white pepper.

  2. Alternatively, mix with melted butter and add lemon juice.

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 + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together704 recipes

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

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,658 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  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

Young asparagus
Forms the body of the sauce and gives its fresh, green flavour once cooked tender.
Egg yolks
Emulsify with the gravy and butter, thickening the sauce into a smooth, rich texture.
Thickened veal gravy
Adds body, savoury depth and moisture to the asparagus.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the butter.

The step that matters

Draining the asparagus thoroughly in a hot strainer. Excess water dilutes the gravy, butter and egg yolks, so the sauce can turn thin or watery. Draining well keeps the emulsion thick and the flavour concentrated.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, veal, egg, butter, lemon):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, veal, egg, butter, lemon. 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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