Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Asparagus Stew
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the asparagus
Trim the asparagus and throw it into plenty of boiling water with a good amount of coarse sea salt and a few grains of baking soda.
Cook until tender, about 10 to 12 minutes, then drain well.
Spread the asparagus on a clean cloth, fold it over, and wipe gently until dry.
Make the stew
In a clean saucepan, melt the butter before adding the asparagus.
Stew the asparagus over medium heat, shaking often, for 8 to 10 minutes.
Sprinkle in the flour and add the sugar.
Pour in boiling water to nearly cover the asparagus and boil rapidly until little liquid remains.
Stir in the beaten egg yolks, then heap the asparagus in a dish and serve hot.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,338 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Asparagus
- Is the main vegetable, cooked until tender and then stewed in butter and its own liquid.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the stew.
- Egg yolks
- Beaten in at the end to enrich and thicken the sauce slightly.
- Flour
- Lightly thickens the buttery liquid so it clings to the asparagus.
The step that matters
Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently, but if the liquid is too hot they can scramble and turn grainy. Stir them in off the heat or at low heat, and keep stirring as they join the sauce.
Swap the asparagus
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, egg):
- Chivefits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Shallotfits about as well
- Asparagusthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, egg. 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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