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Asparagus

A simple dish of boiled asparagus served on toasted bread with melted butter and orange garnish.

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 ↓

Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Trim the white ends of the asparagus to about 6 inches from the head and scrape the green part downwards.

  2. Soak the asparagus in clean water and tie them in small bundles.

Cook and toast

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the asparagus, cooking quickly to avoid overboiling.

  2. Toast the slice of bread until brown on both sides.

  3. Carefully remove the asparagus and dip the toast in the asparagus water.

Assemble and serve

  1. Arrange the asparagus heads on the toast with the white ends outwards and pour melted butter over them.

  2. Cut the orange into quarters for garnish.

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 + orangetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together94 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Bread + orangetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,084 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the main vegetable topping, and its cooking water flavours the toast.
Bread
Provides a crisp, browned base that holds the asparagus.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour over the asparagus and toast.

The step that matters

Cooking the asparagus quickly. Asparagus turns soft and olive-drab when overcooked, because prolonged heat breaks down its cell walls and pigments. Brief boiling keeps it tender-crisp and bright green.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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