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 ↓
Cream of Asparagus
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Cut off the tips of the asparagus about 1 inch long and set the cut asparagus tips aside.
Cover the asparagus stalks and sliced onion with boiling water.
Cook the asparagus stalks and onion until tender.
Press the cooked mixture through a puree sieve.
Retain the cooking water.
Cook the asparagus tips in a little water until tender.
Make the soup
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour.
Add the asparagus puree.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Season with salt and pepper.
Remove the soup from heat.
Stir in the boiling milk.
Beat the egg yolks with the cream.
Quickly stir the mixture into the soup.
Serve
Place the asparagus tips in a tureen.
Pour the soup into the tureen.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,212 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,968 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 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 flavour and the smooth body of the soup when pureed.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavour, forming the base for the roux.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup by forming a roux with the butter.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and dilutes the puree into a smooth soup.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the soup, giving it a velvety texture.
The step that matters
Stir the egg yolk and cream mixture into the soup. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so the soup must be off the heat and the mixture stirred in quickly. Otherwise the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, butter, flour, pepper, milk, egg, cream):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, flour, pepper, milk, egg, cream. 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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