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Asparagus Salad

A salad of asparagus shoots dressed with olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, onion, horseradish, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Asparagus Salad

Why it works: Asparagus and lemon work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 704 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Asparagus Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salad

  1. Lay the asparagus shoots on a salad plate.

  2. Place the pimento bands across the asparagus in the center.

Make and serve the dressing

  1. Mix the olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, white pepper, grated onion, and grated horseradish in a bowl. Let the dressing stand for one hour, then strain through a sieve.

  2. Pour a small amount of dressing over each serving.

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.

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.

  1. Asparagus + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together704 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Onion + horseradishtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Asparagus + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,096 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Asparagus + horseradishtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus shoots
Forms the base of the salad and provides its main texture and flavor.
Olive oil
Carries the flavors of the dressing and gives it a smooth, rich body.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the oil and sharpens the dressing.
Lemon juice
Adds bright acidity and fresh aroma to the dressing.
Grated horseradish
Contributes a sharp, pungent heat that gives the dressing its character.

The step that matters

Letting the dressing stand before straining. Standing lets the grated onion and horseradish release their flavors into the liquid, and straining removes the solids so the dressing pours smoothly and tastes clean rather than gritty or overpowering.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, olive, vinegar, lemon, onion, horseradish):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, olive, vinegar, lemon, onion, horseradish. 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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