Name: To Boil Asparagus
Ingredients: Asparagus; Coarse sea salt; Bread (for toasting); Butter

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

Asparagus
Coarse sea salt
Bread (for toasting)
Butter

Directions

Wash the asparagus well and scrape it.
Tie the asparagus in small bundles and cut the ends even.
Place the bundles in cold water until ready to cook.
Boil water in a pot and add a little coarse sea salt.
Add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook for 20-25 minutes.
Remove the asparagus and place it on a slice of toasted bread, cut into quarters with the crusts removed.
Serve melted butter in a sauce-tureen.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together363 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,026 recipes

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