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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

  1. Boil the asparagus in salted water until tender.

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and stir in the milk or cream and butter.

  3. Remove the asparagus from the water and combine with the egg mixture.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and add bread crumbs.

  5. Return to heat and boil until the asparagus is fully cooked.

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. Milk + buttertop 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

Asparagus
Provides the main body and vegetable flavor of the soup.
Eggs
Thicken the soup as they set with heat, giving it body.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savory flavor.

The step that matters

Return to heat and boil until the asparagus is fully cooked. Egg mixtures thicken as they warm, but if they get too hot they can curdle and turn grainy. Heat gently and stir constantly once the egg mixture is back on the heat.

Swap the asparagus

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