Name: Asparagus
Ingredients: 1 bunch asparagus; 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon baking soda; 1 slice bread; butter; drawn butter

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

Ingredients

Directions

Cut off and discard the white part of the asparagus stalks.
If the lower stalks are tough, slice them thinly and boil for 8-10 minutes before adding the tops.
Tie the tops together in small bundles and boil in 2-3 quarts of water with salt and baking soda for 12-25 minutes.
Toast a slice of bread and moisten it with some asparagus cooking liquid.
Butter the toast, carefully place the asparagus on top, remove the string, and pour drawn butter over everything.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together363 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,026 recipes

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