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Asparagus Polonaise

John Torode suggest treating this very special British seasonal veg the simple French way of serving it with nice contrasting textures

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and parsley work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 566 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-hexanol, which smells resin, flower. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep10 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Put the eggs in a pan of boiling water and simmer for 10 minutes until hard-set. Cool them under cold running water, then peel and finely chop.

  2. Snap or trim the woody ends from the asparagus. Cook the spears in a pan of boiling water for 4 to 6 minutes until just tender, then drain well.

  3. Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the breadcrumbs and thyme leaves and stir for 3 to 4 minutes until golden and crisp.

  4. Arrange the asparagus on warm plates. Scatter over the chopped egg, spoon the buttery crumbs on top, and sprinkle with the chopped parsley. Serve straight away.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Asparagus + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together566 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Asparagus + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Egg + asparagustop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,290 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together28,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the thyme

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

  1. Tarragonbetter flavor fit
  2. Dillabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, asparagus, butter, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).