Name: Asparagus Sauce, for Lamb Chops
Ingredients: ½ pound young asparagus; ½ pint thickened veal gravy; 2 egg yolks; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon cayenne or white pepper; ½ pint good melted butter; 2 teaspoons lemon juice

Why it works: Asparagus and lemon work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 704 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Asparagus Sauce, for Lamb Chops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

Cut the tender points of the asparagus into half-inch lengths, wash, and drain them.
Boil plenty of salted water and add the asparagus. Cook until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Drain the asparagus thoroughly in a hot strainer.

Make the sauce

For the sauce, mix the asparagus with the thickened veal gravy and egg yolks, seasoning with salt and cayenne or white pepper.
Alternatively, mix the asparagus with melted butter and add lemon juice.

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.

Asparagus + lemontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together704 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
White pepper + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,658 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus: Forms the body of the sauce and gives it its main flavour.
Egg yolks: Thicken the sauce as they set gently with heat, giving it a smooth body.
Thickened veal gravy: Adds savoury depth and moisture to the sauce.
Melted butter: Adds richness and a smooth, glossy texture.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the rich butter and asparagus.

The step that matters

Drain the asparagus thoroughly in a hot strainer. Excess water dilutes the sauce and makes it thin or watery. Removing it well keeps the asparagus concentrated in flavour and lets the yolks or butter bind smoothly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, veal, egg, butter, lemon):

Tarragonfits better
Parsleyfits better
Capersfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, veal, egg, butter, lemon. 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.

Lemon Sauce236 recipes

Asparagus Soup179 recipes

Asparagus Salad77 recipes

Veal Patties50 recipes

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Asparagus Sauce, for Lamb Chops