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Asparagus Points

Boiled asparagus served with veal gravy, egg yolks, and a butter‑lemon sauce.

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 Points

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the asparagus points for 10 to 15 minutes, or longer if not tender.

  2. In a bowl, mix the thickened veal gravy with the egg yolks.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter, lemon juice, salt, and white pepper.

Serve

  1. Serve the asparagus with the gravy mixture and drizzle the butter sauce on top.

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. Lemon + white peppertop 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

Asparagus points
Forms the main vegetable base and provides the tender texture of the dish.
Thickened veal gravy
Adds savoury body and moisture that coats the asparagus.
Egg yolks
Enrich the gravy mixture and help it thicken and cling to the asparagus.
Melted butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour across the dish.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and gravy.

The step that matters

Boil the asparagus until tender. Asparagus cooked too briefly stays fibrous, while overcooking turns it soft and dull in colour. Checking for tenderness at the stated time ensures a pleasant bite.

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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