Name: Asparagus Soup
Ingredients: 30 spears of asparagus; ½ teaspoon of butter; 3 tablespoons of cream; Salt; Pepper; 3 pints of stock (or milk); 1 teaspoon of flour

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

Cut the points from the asparagus about 1 inch long.
Cook the remaining asparagus in boiling water until tender.
Drain the asparagus and rub the pulp through a sieve.

Make the soup

In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the flour, stirring until smooth.
Gradually add the stock (or milk) and bring to a simmer.
Stir in the asparagus pulp, cream, salt, and pepper.
Serve hot.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,968 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together936 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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 pulp that thickens and body the soup.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the soup.
Flour: Thickens the stock into a smooth base when cooked with the butter.
Stock: Forms the liquid base of the soup, adding savoury flavour and volume.
Cream: Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the stock to the roux. Adding liquid gradually while stirring keeps the flour smooth, so the soup thickens evenly without lumps.

Swap the asparagus

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

Potatofits better
Leekfits about as well
Spinachfits about as well
Asparagusthe original

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