IllustrationWhy it works: Asparagus and ham match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 100 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare
Cut off one inch from the tops of the asparagus and soak them in water.
Chop the stalks and place them in a soup pot with the chopped onion, salt, pepper, and water.
Boil briskly until the asparagus stalks are tender.
Make the soup
Strain the stalks from the liquid and return the liquid to the pot with the asparagus tops, hock of ham, and chicken.
Boil until the chicken is cooked through.
Thicken
Thicken the soup by mixing flour and butter together, then adding some of the soup or milk to create a paste.
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.
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Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Asparagus + hamtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together100 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Onion + chickentop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,808 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Asparagus + chickentop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together539 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Ham + chickentop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,497 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Asparagus + peppertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,968 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 vegetable flavour and the body of the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup when cooked with butter and liquid.
- Butter
- Combines with flour to form a smooth paste that thickens the soup.
- Hock of ham
- Adds savoury, smoky flavour to the broth as it simmers.
- Chicken
- Adds meaty flavour and richness to the broth.
The step that matters
Thicken the soup with a flour and butter paste. Flour must be mixed into a smooth paste with butter, then thinned with hot soup or milk, before stirring in. Adding flour directly to hot liquid forms lumps, because starch clumps unless it is separated and dispersed first.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, pepper, ham, chicken, flour, butter):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Leekabout as good a flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, pepper, ham, chicken, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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