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Asparagus a LA Francaise

A French-style asparagus dish served on toasted bread with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Asparagus a LA Francaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Boil the asparagus until tender, then chop the heads and tender parts of the stalks.

  2. Chop the boiled onion and mix it with the asparagus.

Cook and serve

  1. Add salt, pepper, and the beaten egg yolk, then heat the mixture.

  2. Serve the mixture on toasted bread slices and pour melted butter over it.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  3. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 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 main body of the dish and gives its vegetable flavour and texture.
Egg yolk
Binds the chopped mixture and thickens it gently when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and carries flavour over the toast.
Toasted bread
Provides a crisp base that holds the mixture and soaks up the butter.

The step that matters

Heating the mixture with the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated, but if it gets too hot it can scramble, leaving lumps instead of a smooth binding mixture. Heat gently and stir constantly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, pepper, egg, butter, bread. 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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