Skip to main content
Main

Asparagus Peas

Asparagus cut into pea-sized pieces cooked with water, salt, butter, cream, sugar, and thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Asparagus Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut asparagus into pieces the size of peas and wash them.

Cook

  1. In a stewpan, combine asparagus peas, hot water, and salt.

  2. Boil until three-quarters cooked, then strain the liquid.

  3. Reduce the strained liquid until nearly gone.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add butter, cream, and sugar to the reduced liquid.

  2. Thicken with flour and water as needed.

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

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the reduced liquid.
Cream
Adds body and richness, softening the flavor of the reduced liquid.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a sauce as it is combined with water.

The step that matters

Reducing the strained liquid until nearly gone. Evaporating water concentrates flavor and sugars. If reduced too little the sauce stays thin and watery; if reduced too far it can scorch or turn overly salty and sticky. Watch closely near the end.

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.

You might also like

Green PeasGreen Peas229 recipesAsparagus SoupAsparagus Soup179 recipesAsparagus SaladAsparagus Salad77 recipesCream of AsparagusCream of Asparagus38 recipes