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
Prepare the asparagus
Trim the green ends off the asparagus and chop the remaining stalks.
Boil the chopped asparagus until tender, then season with salt and pepper.
Make the sauce
In a bowl, mix equal parts flour and butter to a cream.
Slowly add enough asparagus water or clear hot water to create a sauce, then bring to a boil.
Assemble and serve
Toast the bread and place it in a deep dish.
Place the asparagus on the toast and pour the sauce over it.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,968 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together363 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth, pourable sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and giving the sauce a smooth body.
- Asparagus
- Provides the main vegetable, cooked until tender and served over the toast.
- Toasted bread
- Forms a crisp base that soaks up the sauce under the asparagus.
The step that matters
Bring the sauce to a boil after adding the liquid. Flour needs to be heated fully in the liquid to cook out its raw starch taste and thicken properly. If the sauce stays too cool, it stays thin and may taste pasty.
Swap the asparagus
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, bread, flour, butter):
- Shallotfits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Asparagusthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, bread, flour, 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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