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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A soup made from asparagus tops and stalks simmered in weak stock with onion, strained and returned to the heat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cream of Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Onion and asparagus match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,212 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Cut the tops off the asparagus.

  2. Parboil the tops separately.

  3. Cut the stalks into short lengths.

Make the soup

  1. Cook the stalks slowly in the weak stock with the minced onion for one hour.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Press the strained mixture through a colander.

  4. Return the soup to the heat.

  5. Cook the reserved tips until very soft in the liquid.

  6. Pass the soup again through the strainer, rubbing all the pulp through the mesh.

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. Onion + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 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 stalks
Provide the main body and flavour of the soup as they break down during slow cooking.
Weak stock
Forms the cooking liquid that carries flavour and gives the soup its base.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and depth to the soup base as it softens in the stock.

The step that matters

Passing the soup through the strainer. Rubbing the pulp through the mesh breaks down fibres and yields a smooth texture; skipping or rushing this leaves the soup stringy and grainy.

“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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