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Cream of Asparagus

A creamy asparagus soup thickened with flour and enriched with sweet cream and small egg custards.

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

Why it works: Asparagus and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,968 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Boil the asparagus in soup stock until tender. Remove from heat.

  2. Cut the tips off one bunch. Set aside.

Make the soup

  1. Pass the remaining asparagus through a colander. Add the pureed asparagus to the other soup stock.

  2. Thicken the soup with flour.

  3. Heat the sweet cream in a double boiler.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the boiling cream into the soup tureen. Stir in the prepared stock.

  2. Add the asparagus tips. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Drop in the small egg custards.

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

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

  2. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

  5. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 flavor and, once pureed, the body of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells when heated in liquid.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture from its fat.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with flour. Flour lumps easily if added to hot liquid without first being blended smooth. Its starch must be heated in the liquid to swell and thicken the soup evenly.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, pepper, egg. 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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