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To Stew Asparagus

Creamy asparagus stew served with toasted French roll.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Stew Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the asparagus and place it in a stew-pan.

  2. Add hot water and salt, then boil until nearly done.

  3. Strain the asparagus and reserve the cooking liquid.

Make the sauce

  1. Boil the reserved liquid until nearly reduced.

  2. Add butter, cream, sugar, and flour to the liquid to achieve a proper thickness.

  3. Stir in the asparagus and stew until tender.

Serve

  1. Serve on a dish with a toasted and buttered French roll underneath.

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. Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable body and tender texture of the stew.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the liquid a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and body, helping the liquid turn silky and smooth.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid so it clings to the asparagus.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vegetable's natural flavour.

The step that matters

Thickening the liquid. Flour must be fully incorporated and the liquid kept at a gentle simmer so it thickens smoothly without lumps or scorching. Stirring while it cooks keeps the starch dispersed and the sauce even.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, butter, cream, sugar, flour):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, cream, sugar, flour. 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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