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Puree of Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from asparagus, onion, butter, stock, cream, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Puree of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim and chop the asparagus, reserving tips for garnish.

Make the soup

  1. Melt butter in a pot, add chopped onion, and sauté until soft.

  2. Add asparagus and vegetable stock; simmer until asparagus is tender.

  3. Blend the mixture until smooth, then strain through a sieve.

  4. Return to heat, season with salt and pepper, and stir in cream.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, garnished with reserved asparagus tips.

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

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

  2. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the main body and flavour of the soup once cooked and blended.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps sauté the onion without browning it.
Onion
Softens during sautéing to build a sweet, savoury base.
Vegetable stock
Provides liquid that cooks the asparagus and carries its flavour.
Cream
Adds fat and smoothness, giving the soup a silkier texture.

The step that matters

Blend, then strain through a sieve. Blending breaks down the asparagus fibres into a smooth purée, and straining removes remaining fibrous bits so the texture stays silky.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

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