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Asparagus, to Boil

A boiled asparagus dish served with toasted bread and melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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, to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Scrape the asparagus stalks until they look white and cut them evenly.

  2. Soak the asparagus in clean water.

Boil

  1. Boil water in a stewpan and add salt.

  2. Tie the asparagus in small bunches and place them in the boiling water.

  3. Remove the asparagus when tender to avoid losing color and taste.

Serve

  1. Toast a round of bread about ½ inch thick and dip it in the asparagus cooking water.

  2. Place the toast in a dish, pour melted butter over it, and arrange the asparagus on top with the tips facing inward.

  3. Serve melted butter in a separate dish to avoid greasiness.

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

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

  3. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Is the main vegetable; its tender stalks are cooked until just tender and hold the dish together.
Bread
Soaks up the asparagus cooking water and melted butter, giving the dish a moist, flavorful base.
Melted butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel that complements the mild asparagus.

The step that matters

Remove the asparagus when tender. Asparagus turns dull and loses flavor and texture if overcooked, because prolonged heat breaks down its cell structure and pigments. Pulling it as soon as it is tender keeps its color and taste.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter. 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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