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Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled asparagus, onion, butter, flour, cream, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Boil the asparagus in water with the onion and salt for 30 minutes.

  2. Discard the onion. Remove the asparagus.

  3. Cut off the tender part of the asparagus.

  4. Pound the cut asparagus to a paste with a little water.

Make the soup

  1. Mix the asparagus paste with the butter and flour over low heat until melted.

  2. Add this mixture to the boiling water used for cooking the asparagus.

  3. Beat the egg in the cream or milk.

  4. Add the beaten egg to the soup.

  5. Season the soup with salt and pepper.

  6. Bring the soup to a boil.

  7. Strain the soup.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup, adding the sliced asparagus just before serving.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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 when pounded into a paste.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and smoothing the texture.
All-purpose flour
Cooked with the butter, it thickens the soup by swelling in the hot liquid.
Egg
Beaten into the cream, it enriches the soup and helps it set slightly when heated.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness, giving the soup a smooth, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg to the soup. Egg proteins set when heated, so if the soup is too hot or boils after the egg goes in, it can curdle and turn grainy. Tempering the egg into the cream first and adding it off the boil helps keep the soup smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, flour, sugar, cream, egg, 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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