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Asparagus Soup

A soup made from fresh asparagus, milk, and cream, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Asparagus and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 261 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Wash and cut the asparagus into short lengths.

  2. Cook the asparagus in hot water until tender and the water is reduced by half.

  3. Rub the mixture through a colander.

  4. Add milk, cream, and salt.

  5. Heat to boiling.

Serve

  1. Serve with croutons and stir in rice if desired.

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. Asparagus + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together261 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Asparagus + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together650 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Asparagus + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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, once cooked and pureed, the body of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness, rounding out the vegetable flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a colander. Pushing the cooked asparagus through a sieve breaks down the fibres and produces a smooth texture; leftover fibrous pieces make the soup gritty.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusthe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Sweet potatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, rice. 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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