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Asparagus Sauce

A creamy sauce made from asparagus cooking water, butter, flour, egg yolk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Asparagus Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the asparagus cooking water and heat it until boiling.

  2. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk with 1 tablespoon of the boiling asparagus water, then add to the saucepan.

  3. Rub the butter and flour together until smooth, then stir into the saucepan.

  4. Cook until the sauce thickens to the consistency of boiled custard, stirring constantly.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg yolk
Thickens the sauce and adds richness as it sets with gentle heat.
Butter
Adds fat and smoothness, carrying flavour through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by swelling in the hot liquid as it cooks.
Asparagus cooking water
Forms the flavourful liquid base of the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk can scramble if it meets very hot liquid directly. Tempering it first with a spoonful of boiling water warms it gradually, so the sauce stays smooth and thickens evenly.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Chivefits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Asparagusthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, 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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