Why it works: Asparagus and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,026 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Boiled Asparagus
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut off the lower parts of the asparagus where they snap.
Wash the asparagus and tie them together.
Cook and serve
Cook in boiling salted water until soft, about 20 to 35 minutes, keeping the tips out of the water for the first 10 minutes.
Drain the asparagus and place on a hot serving dish.
Spread with butter and sprinkle with salt.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,026 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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 becomes tender when cooked through in boiling water.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture to the cooked spears as it melts over them.
The step that matters
Keeping the tips out of the water. Asparagus tips cook quickly with steam, so holding them above the boiling water for the first 10 minutes keeps them tender while the stalks cook through.
“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.
More boiled asparagus recipes
You might also like
Asparagus Soup179 recipes
Asparagus Salad77 recipes
Cream of Asparagus38 recipes
Tomato Soup526 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.