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Asparagus on Toast

A dish of boiled asparagus served on toasted bread with a creamy egg yolk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Asparagus on Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Wash the asparagus and tie stalks into small bundles about 4 inches long.

  2. Cook in boiling water with salt for 20 minutes, then drain immediately.

  3. Dip the toasted bread quickly into the hot salted water from the asparagus.

  4. Arrange one bunch of asparagus on each square of toast.

Make the sauce

  1. In a double boiler, whisk the egg yolks with a wooden spoon until thickened.

  2. Add the butter one teaspoon at a time, stirring constantly.

  3. Gradually mix in the whipped cream, stirring continuously.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then pour over the asparagus or serve from a gravy boat.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable flavour and tender texture once cooked through.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce as they gently cook, giving it a smooth, custard-like body.
Butter
Adds richness and silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Whipped cream
Lightens the sauce and adds creaminess and body.

The step that matters

Thickening the egg yolks over a double boiler. Egg yolks set at moderate heat, so the gentle, indirect heat of a double boiler keeps them from scrambling. Stirring constantly helps them thicken evenly into a smooth sauce.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Asparagusthe original
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, egg, butter, cream, pepper. 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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