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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from canned asparagus, carrots, onions, herbs, and chicken broth, finished with a butter‑flour 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 vegetable base

  1. In a saucepan, combine the asparagus, onion, carrots, herbs, and boiling water; cook slowly until the water evaporates.

  2. Press the mixture through a sieve, then add the chicken broth and season with salt as needed.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a separate pan, make a white sauce by melting butter, adding flour and salt, and gradually whisking in milk until smooth.

Combine and serve

  1. Stir the asparagus mixture into the white sauce.

  2. Serve very 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 flavour and bulk of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour in the white sauce.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth white sauce that gives body to the soup.
Milk
Forms the liquid of the white sauce, adding creaminess and body.
Chicken broth
Adds savoury depth and liquid to the puréed vegetables.

The step that matters

Gradually whisking in the milk. Adding milk slowly while whisking lets the flour starch disperse evenly before it thickens, preventing lumps in the white sauce.

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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