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Asparagus Soup

A soup made with boiled asparagus, eggs, milk or cream, butter, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the asparagus

  1. Cut the asparagus into small pieces and boil in salted water.

Make the soup

  1. Just before serving, beat the eggs and stir in the milk or cream and butter.

  2. Add the cooked asparagus to the egg mixture.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in bread crumbs.

  4. Boil until the asparagus is tender.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the soup as they heat and give it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Milk or cream
Adds moisture and a soft, creamy body to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Asparagus
Provides the main flavour and the fibrous body of the soup.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add thickness to the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs. Eggs thicken a liquid as they warm, but overheated egg proteins set into curds. Once the eggs are stirred in, keep the soup gently heated rather than at a hard boil to avoid curdling.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

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