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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled asparagus, stock, butter, flour, and cream, finished with asparagus tips and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Cream of 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 ↓

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and boil the asparagus in salted water until tender.

  2. Cut the tips from 1 bunch and set aside.

  3. Press the remaining asparagus through a colander into the soup stock.

Make the soup

  1. Heat the butter in a pot, add the flour, and stir until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the hot cream or milk, stirring until thickened.

  3. Stir in the asparagus stock and season with salt and pepper.

Serve

  1. Pour into a tureen, add the asparagus tips and additional butter, and 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.

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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, when pressed through a colander, body to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream mixture into a smooth base for the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flour so it cooks smooth before the liquid goes in.
Hot cream or rich milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture as it thickens the soup.
Soup stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the asparagus flavour.

The step that matters

Add the hot cream or milk gradually. Adding the liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour smooth and lump-free, so the soup thickens evenly instead of forming clumps.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, 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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