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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled asparagus, stock, butter, flour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cream of Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Asparagus and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 566 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Wash the asparagus.

  2. Drain the asparagus, reserving the tips.

  3. Add the asparagus stalks to 1 pint of cold water.

  4. Boil the water with asparagus for 5 minutes.

  5. Drain the asparagus.

Make the soup

  1. Add 3 pints of soup stock and the onion slice.

  2. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Melt the butter in a pot.

  5. Add the flour, salt, and parsley to the melted butter.

  6. Cook the flour mixture with the hot stock.

  7. Stir in ½ cup of cream and the previously boiled asparagus tips.

  8. Bring the soup to a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup, adding whipped cream just before serving if desired.

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 + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together566 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Provides the main flavour and the body of the soup once its stalks are puréed through a sieve.
Butter
Melted with flour to form a roux that thickens the soup and carries flavour.
Flour
Cooked in the melted butter and stock to thicken the soup into a smooth, creamy texture.
Cream
Stirred in near the end to add richness and a smooth, mellow texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour mixture with the hot stock. Flour must be cooked in the butter and then whisked into hot stock gradually so the starch swells evenly. Adding it too fast or unevenly can leave lumps and a floury taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, butter, flour, parsley, cream):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, flour, parsley, 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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