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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled asparagus, water, butter, flour, cayenne pepper, cream, and salt, served with crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Cream of Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Butter and cream 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine the water from boiled asparagus with the fresh asparagus stalks.

  2. Add the butter and flour mixture, then bring to a boil until the asparagus is tender.

  3. Mash the asparagus into the soup, then stir in cayenne pepper, cream, and salt to taste.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup and serve with delicate crackers.

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

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

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 mashed, the body of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounder mouthfeel to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup slightly so it feels smoother on the palate.
Cream
Adds fat and softness, mellowing the vegetable flavour.

The step that matters

Bringing the flour and butter mixture to a boil. Flour must be cooked long enough to lose its raw starchy taste and to thicken the liquid fully. Boiling too briefly leaves the soup pasty or floury, while the asparagus must also be fully tender so the mashed soup is smooth.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

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