Name: Asparagus with Vinaigrette Sauce
Ingredients: asparagus; vinaigrette sauce (omit sugar); water for boiling

Why it works: Sauce and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Asparagus with Vinaigrette Sauce

Ingredients

asparagus
vinaigrette sauce (omit sugar)
water for boiling

Directions

Boil the asparagus until tender.
Serve the asparagus with the vinaigrette sauce in a separate dish.
For a cold dish, chill the asparagus on ice before serving.
Arrange the asparagus points to meet in the center of the dish.

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.

Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Asparagus + saucetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together573 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Asparagus + sugartop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together488 recipes

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