Name: Consomme Aux Asperges
Ingredients: 1 pint asparagus points; 2 quarts consomme; coarse sea salt; pepper

Why it works: Asparagus and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,968 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Consomme Aux Asperges

Ingredients

1 pint asparagus points
2 quarts consomme
coarse sea salt
pepper

Directions

Boil the asparagus points in salted water until tender.
Strain the asparagus and add it to the consommé.
Season with coarse sea salt and pepper to taste.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus points: Provide the main vegetable flavour and a tender texture that sits in the clear broth.
Consommé: Forms the clear, savoury liquid base that carries the dish.

“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.