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White Asparagus Soup

A soup made from white asparagus, broth, milk, and cornstarch, served over diced fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

White Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Crack the bones into splinters and chop the meat.

  2. Combine the bones, chopped meat, and asparagus stalks with water in a pot, then cover the pot.

  3. Cook gently for 3 hours.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Cool to let the grease rise, then skim off the fat.

  6. Return the strained liquid to the pot with seasoning and reserved asparagus heads.

  7. Boil slowly for an additional 20 minutes.

Thicken and serve

  1. Heat the milk in a separate pot.

  2. Stir in the cornstarch and boil for 1 minute to thicken.

  3. Pour the thickened milk into a tureen over the diced fried bread.

  4. Stir in the boiling soup.

  5. Serve immediately.

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.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Asparagus + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together566 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Supplies the main flavour and the body of the soup, with the stalks cooked into the stock.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the finished soup.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk as it boils, giving the soup a smoother, heavier body.

The step that matters

Boil the milk and cornstarch for 1 minute. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil and its starch granules swell. Boiling briefly thickens the milk; stopping early leaves it thin and floury-tasting.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, milk, pepper, bread, meat):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, milk, pepper, bread, meat. 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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