Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cream of Asparagus Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the asparagus
Cut the good parts of the asparagus into small pieces and place them in a stew pan with boiling water.
Simmer gently for 30 minutes, then press through a colander.
In a separate pan, cook the asparagus tips with the bay leaf, onion, salt, and boiling water for 10-15 minutes until tender.
Drain the tips.
Make the soup
Transfer the asparagus liquid into a double boiler with the milk.
In a bowl, rub together the flour and butter, adding a little hot milk until it pours like cream.
Stir this mixture into the milk and asparagus liquid, beating well as it thickens.
Season the soup.
Serve
Pour the soup into a hot soup tureen.
Place the asparagus tips on top.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,212 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,968 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 the body of the soup once pressed through.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and gives it a creamy richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it is heated with the butter and milk.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and combines with the flour to form a smooth thickener.
The step that matters
Beating the flour and butter mixture into the hot soup. Flour thickens only when heated in liquid and can clump if added without being smoothed first. Beating as it thickens keeps the texture smooth and even.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, milk, flour, butter, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, milk, flour, butter, pepper. 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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