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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made with asparagus, milk, butter, flour, and egg.

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: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup base

  1. In a pot, combine the asparagus and hot water; bring to a boil.

  2. In a separate pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour.

  3. Add the hot milk to the butter and flour mixture, then season with salt and mace.

  4. Combine the boiling asparagus mixture with the milk mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg.

  2. Stir in the hot thin cream and asparagus tips; add to the soup.

  3. Serve hot.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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 body of the soup.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth base.
Milk
Makes up the creamy liquid that the roux thickens.
Egg
Adds richness and, when beaten in, helps give the soup a silky body.
Thin cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the flavour and texture.

The step that matters

Combine the boiling asparagus mixture with the milk mixture.. Adding very hot liquid to the roux can make it lump if it is not stirred steadily. Whisking as you combine keeps the starch dispersed so the soup stays smooth.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, flour, milk, egg, 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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