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Asparagus Soup

A veal and asparagus soup thickened with flour and milk.

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

Why it works: Veal and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,930 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine veal, salt pork, and water in a large pot.

  2. Boil for 2.5 hours.

  3. Add half of the asparagus and continue boiling.

Finish and serve

  1. About 20 minutes before serving, add the remaining asparagus.

  2. Stir in the milk.

  3. Thicken the soup with flour.

  4. Season with salt to taste.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Pork + asparagustop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together381 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pork + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Veal
Provides the meaty base and body of the broth as it simmers for hours.
Asparagus
Supplies the main vegetable flavor, green color, and tender texture in the soup.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy, smooth mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory, salty depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour. Flour thickens when its starch swells in hot liquid, but it clumps if added raw to the pot. Mix it smoothly into the liquid and keep the soup hot so the starch fully thickens and the raw flour taste cooks off.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, milk, flour):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusthe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, milk, flour. 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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