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Asparagus Soup

A soup made with asparagus, bacon, onion, chicken, and thickened with flour, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Scrape the asparagus and cut off 1 inch from the tops.

  2. Soak the tops in water.

Make the soup

  1. Chop the stalks and place them in a pot with the bacon, chopped onion, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add 2 quarts of water and boil until the stalks are soft.

  3. Pulp the mixture through a sieve and return the liquid to the pot.

  4. Add the cut-up chicken and the reserved asparagus tops.

  5. Boil until cooked through.

  6. Thicken the soup with flour, butter, and milk, then serve.

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. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Asparagus + chickentop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (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 flavour and, once pulped, the body of the soup.
Bacon
Adds fat and savoury flavour to the stock as it cooks.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the base.
Chicken
Adds meat flavour and richness to the broth.
Flour
Thickens the soup, giving it a fuller texture.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with flour, butter, and milk. Flour needs to be cooked into the fat and hot liquid to avoid lumps and a raw starchy taste. Adding it to boiling soup without first blending it smoothly with butter can cause clumping, so it should be whisked in gradually.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, pepper, chicken, flour, butter, 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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