Skip to main content
Main

German Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made with white stock, asparagus, flour, milk, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and asparagus are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,968 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

German Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

  1. Prepare 2 quarts of white soup from bones or fresh meat.

  2. Season the soup with salt and pepper.

  3. Thicken the soup with flour mixed in milk until it reaches a cream‑like consistency.

Add the asparagus

  1. Cut the green parts of the asparagus into ¾‑inch pieces.

  2. Add the asparagus to the saucepan and boil until tender, but do not overcook.

Finish with egg yolks

  1. For a richer soup, mix the yolks of 3 eggs with a little milk.

  2. Remove the soup from heat for 1–2 minutes before adding the egg mixture.

  3. Do not allow the soup to boil after adding the eggs.

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.

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. Pepper + asparagustop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  2. Flour + asparagustop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Meat + asparagustop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together142 recipes

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

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Thickens the soup into a cream-like consistency as it cooks.
Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable flavour and tender texture in the soup.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and give it a silkier, thicker body.

The step that matters

Add the egg yolks off the heat and do not boil. Egg yolks begin to set and can curdle when overheated, so the soup must be removed from heat before they are added and kept below boiling afterward.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, flour, milk, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Asparagusthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, flour, milk, 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.

You might also like

Asparagus SoupAsparagus Soup179 recipesAsparagus SaladAsparagus Salad77 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipesCream of AsparagusCream of Asparagus38 recipes