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Cream of Asparagus

A creamy soup made from asparagus, stock, cream, flour, butter, and egg yolks.

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 asparagus

  1. Cut off the tips of the asparagus and set aside.

  2. Cut the rest of the stalks into small pieces and boil in the stock until tender.

  3. Strain and mash the asparagus through a colander.

Make the soup

  1. Cook the flour in the butter without browning it.

  2. Add some broth and the asparagus tips, and boil for 45 minutes.

  3. Stir in the mashed asparagus and the remaining broth.

  4. Beat the yolks into the cream, then heat in the soup and 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Flour + buttertop 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. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Flour and butter 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 body of the soup once mashed.
Soup stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the asparagus flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
Flour
Cooked in butter to form a roux that thickens the soup.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and carries the flour for thickening.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the cream when beaten in, giving a silky body.

The step that matters

Beat the yolks into the cream, then heat in the soup. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they get too hot. Tempering them with cream and then adding them to the soup over gentle heat keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Asparagusthe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cream, flour, butter, egg. 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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