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Asparagus with Tomato Cream Sauce

A dish of asparagus served with a sauce made from tomato juice, aspic, mayonnaise, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and tomato work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 313 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus with Tomato Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the asparagus by trimming the ends and cooking until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, mix the tomato juice, aspic, mayonnaise, and whipped cream until well combined.

Serve

  1. Serve the asparagus cold with the tomato cream sauce drizzled 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 + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Tomato + creamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 the sauce.
Tomato juice
Adds tomato flavor and moisture to the sauce.
Aspic
Gelatin-based setting agent that gives the sauce body and a light set when chilled.
Mayonnaise
Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy texture.
Whipped cream
Adds airy fat and lightness, softening the sauce into a cream.

The step that matters

Cooking the asparagus until tender. Asparagus cooked too little stays fibrous and woody, while overcooking turns it limp and dull in color. Cooking until just tender keeps a firm bite and bright green color.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, cream. 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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