Why it works: Asparagus and sauce work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 573 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Asparagus, Sauce Hollaudaise
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Scrape and wash the asparagus carefully.
Tie them into six equal bunches with the heads arranged in one direction.
Chop off the ends evenly.
Cook and serve
Boil in salted water for 20 to 22 minutes until done.
Lift out and drain thoroughly on a cloth.
Lay nicely on a dish with a folded napkin.
Untie and serve with the hot Hollandaise sauce in a separate bowl.
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.
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Asparagus + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together573 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Asparagus
- Is the main vegetable, so its tender texture when boiled is the focus of the dish.
- Hollandaise sauce
- Adds richness and fat, and its buttery, slightly tangy flavour complements the mild asparagus.
The step that matters
Boil in salted water for 20 to 22 minutes until done. Asparagus turns from crisp to limp and dull if overcooked, and undercooked spears stay fibrous. Checking for tenderness near the end of the window helps hit the right texture.
“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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