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Asparagus a LA Creme

A creamy asparagus dish served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 313 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus a LA Creme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Boil the asparagus in salted water for 10 minutes.

  2. Strain the asparagus.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine the asparagus, lettuce, onion, milk, and herbs.

  2. Cook for 20 minutes.

  3. Remove the asparagus and rub the remaining mixture through a sieve.

  4. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and add the strained mixture, cream, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

  5. Cook for a few minutes, but do not boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the asparagus on buttered toast and pour the sauce 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. Asparagus + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + lettucetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 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
Forms the main body of the dish and gives its flavour to the sauce.
Butter
Enriches the sauce with fat and carries flavour, and is used to butter the toast.
Flour
Thickens the butter and strained mixture into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the sauce as it gently heats.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding body and mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Cook for a few minutes, but do not boil.. Egg yolks thicken the sauce through gentle heat, but if it boils they can curdle and turn grainy, ruining the smooth texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, milk, lettuce, butter, flour, cream, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, milk, lettuce, butter, flour, cream, 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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