Skip to main content

Asparagus, Egg and Watercress 'sandwich', Cured Smoked Ham

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 24 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Watercress and asparagus share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 35 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Cook2 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Watercress + asparagustop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together35 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Butter + breadtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + hamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Watercress + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together293 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Mustard and vinegar share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (watercress, butter, asparagus, egg, sherry, vinegar, bread):

  1. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Shallotabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Chiveabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against watercress, butter, asparagus, egg, sherry, vinegar, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).