Name: Asparagus Salad, with Truffles, Royal
Ingredients: 1 bunch asparagus; ½ cup truffles, cut into short julienne; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Juice of 1 lemon; 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped (yolk and white separated); Additional truffles, for garnish; Reduced cold Madeira wine sauce, for garnish; Tartare sauce, for filling

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Asparagus Salad, with Truffles, Royal

Ingredients

1 bunch asparagus
½ cup truffles, cut into short julienne
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped (yolk and white separated)
Additional truffles, for garnish
Reduced cold Madeira wine sauce, for garnish
Tartare sauce, for filling

Directions

Prepare the salad

Prepare the asparagus as directed in a previous recipe.
Add half the quantity of truffles to the asparagus.
Season the mixture with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Mix gently.
Cover the salad.
Refrigerate for one hour.

Garnish and serve

When ready to serve, garnish the salad with alternating chopped egg yolks and whites around the border.
Add slices of truffles dipped in reduced cold Madeira wine sauce.
Create a crown in the center and fill the crown with tartare sauce.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Asparagus + lemontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together704 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,968 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Asparagus + truffletop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together141 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Truffle + madeira winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together195 recipes

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 salad, providing the crisp-tender vegetable base.
Truffles: Adds a concentrated earthy aroma that flavours the whole salad.
Hard-boiled eggs: Contribute richness and a soft texture as a visible garnish around the border.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the richness of the eggs and sauces.

“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.