Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Asparagus Puree
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the asparagus
Break off the tender tips of the asparagus and set them aside.
Blanch the remaining asparagus pieces in boiling water, then drain thoroughly.
Make the puree
In a saucepan, combine the drained asparagus with 2 ounces of butter and the flour. Stir for 5 minutes without browning.
Add the white stock and boil slowly until the asparagus is tender.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and return it to the saucepan. Simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the remaining 3 ounces of butter.
Finish and serve
In a separate saucepan, boil the cream and add it just before serving.
Place the asparagus tips in a tureen and pour the puree over them immediately after adding the cream.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,968 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,026 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Asparagus
- Forms the body and flavour of the puree, and its tips are kept whole as a garnish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the finished puree.
- Flour
- Thickens the puree as it cooks with the butter, giving it body.
- White stock
- Liquid that cooks the asparagus and loosens the puree to a pourable consistency.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a silky texture when stirred in just before serving.
The step that matters
Stir the flour and butter without browning. Cooking the flour gently in fat for the full five minutes removes its raw taste and lets it thicken evenly. If it browns, the roux takes on a toasted, bitter flavour and loses some thickening power, and the puree tastes off.
Swap the asparagus
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cream, pepper):
- Spinachfits better
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, 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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