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Soup

Cream of Asparagus

A creamy asparagus soup made with boiled asparagus, cream, butter, cayenne pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream of Asparagus

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream of Asparagus

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

  1. Boil the asparagus until tender.

  2. Pass the asparagus through a colander.

  3. Add ½ quart of the boiling water to the asparagus.

  4. Stir in the cayenne pepper and salt.

Finish and serve

  1. Scald the cream and mix in the butter.

  2. Combine the cream mixture with the asparagus and stir well.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Asparagus + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the main body and flavor of the soup once cooked and strained.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder mouthfeel and richer flavor.

The step that matters

Scald the cream without boiling it. Cream that boils can curdle or separate, which makes the soup grainy. Heating it gently keeps it smooth before it is combined with the asparagus.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, pepper. 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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