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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the asparagus
Wash the asparagus and cut off the tips.
Cut the stalks into small pieces.
Boil the tips and stalks separately in 1 pint of salted water.
Set aside the tips and press the stalks through a sieve.
Make the cream
In a bowl, rub together the butter and flour with a little hot milk.
Stir the mixture into 1 quart of boiling milk and cook for 5 minutes.
Combine the hot asparagus with the milk mixture, season to taste, add the tips, and serve immediately.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + milktop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together650 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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, once pressed through a sieve, the body of the soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the cream.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk so the soup becomes creamy rather than watery.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base that the asparagus purée is combined with.
The step that matters
Stir the flour and butter mixture into the boiling milk. Flour must be fully worked into the butter and a little hot milk first; adding it lumpy to boiling milk lets starch clump before it disperses, leaving lumps. Cooking for the full time lets the starch swell and thicken the cream.
Swap the asparagus
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk):
- Potatofits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Leekfits better
- Asparagusthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk. 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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