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Asparagus

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

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

Cook the asparagus

  1. Boil water with salt.

  2. Tie asparagus in small bunches and add to boiling water.

  3. Remove asparagus when tender to avoid losing color and taste.

Assemble the dish

  1. Toast a slice of bread about ½ inch thick.

  2. Dip the toast in the asparagus cooking liquid and place it in a dish.

  3. Pour melted butter over the toast.

  4. Arrange the asparagus around the dish with the tops inwards.

  5. Serve additional melted butter in a separate dish.

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).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
The main vegetable, giving the dish its fresh, green flavor and tender texture when cooked.
Bread
Toasted base that soaks up the cooking liquid and butter, adding structure and a savory crunch.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and softening the toast and asparagus.

The step that matters

Remove the asparagus when tender. Asparagus turns dull and mushy with extended heat, as chlorophyll breaks down and cell walls soften. Pulling it at the first tender point keeps its bright color and fresh taste.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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