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Asparagus — Italian Fashion

A boiled asparagus dish tossed in oil, vinegar, pepper, salt, and thickened with egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,968 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus — Italian Fashion

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the asparagus

  1. Break the asparagus into pieces and boil until soft, then drain the water off the asparagus.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine oil, water, and vinegar; bring to a boil.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, then add the asparagus.

  3. Thicken the mixture with the egg white.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Asparagus + vinegartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  5. Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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 main body of the dish and carries its vegetable flavor and texture.
Oil
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity, giving the sauce a sharp, bright flavor.
Egg white
Thickens the sauce as its proteins set when heated.

The step that matters

Thicken the mixture with the egg white. Egg white proteins set when heated and thicken the liquid. The mixture must be hot enough for the proteins to set, but overheating can make them tighten into curds instead of a smooth thickening.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Cucumberfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, pepper, egg. 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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