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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from canned asparagus, carrots, onions, herbs, broth, and a white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Cream of Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Clove and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,873 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the asparagus base

  1. Combine asparagus, onion, carrots, herbs, and boiling water in a saucepan.

  2. Cook slowly until the water evaporates.

  3. Press the asparagus mixture through a sieve.

  4. Add chicken broth and salt to the asparagus puree.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a separate pot, make a white sauce by melting butter, then whisking in flour and salt until smooth.

  2. Gradually add milk to the white sauce, stirring constantly until thickened.

Combine and serve

  1. Stir the asparagus mixture into the white sauce.

  2. Serve hot, garnished with croutons.

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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Asparagus + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together571 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Canned asparagus
Provides the main vegetable flavour and body for the soup.
Butter
Forms the fat base of the white sauce and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the white sauce with starch as it cooks with the butter and milk.
Milk
Combines with the roux to form a creamy, thickened sauce.
Chicken broth
Adds liquid and savoury depth to the asparagus puree.

The step that matters

Gradually add milk to the white sauce. Adding milk slowly while stirring constantly keeps the flour and butter mixture smooth, preventing lumps as the starch hydrates and thickens.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, onion, carrot, 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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