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Asparagus to Boil

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 to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the asparagus and cut them into equal lengths, then tie them in small bundles.

  2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add salt.

Cook the asparagus

  1. Add the asparagus bundles to the boiling water and boil until they are slightly tender.

  2. Remove the asparagus from the water to prevent overcooking.

Serve

  1. Toast the slices of bread and dip them in the asparagus cooking water.

  2. Pour melted butter over the toast and place the asparagus on top.

  3. Serve hot with additional melted butter.

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
Forms the main vegetable and cooks to a tender texture in the boiling water.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that coats the toast and asparagus.
Slices of bread
Provide a toasted base that soaks up the cooking water and butter.

The step that matters

Remove the asparagus from the water to prevent overcooking. Asparagus continues to cook from residual heat after it leaves the pot. Lifting it out once it is slightly tender keeps the stalks bright green and prevents them from turning soft and dull.

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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