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Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled asparagus, onion, stock, milk, and egg yolks, seasoned with butter, flour, bay leaf, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the asparagus tops.

  2. Cook them in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes.

  3. Drain and place in a tureen.

  4. Cut the stalks into short lengths.

  5. Slice the onion.

Make the soup

  1. Fry them in butter with parsley and bay leaf over low heat for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the flour and cook briefly.

  3. Gradually stir in the stock off the heat, season, and simmer gently for 1 hour.

  4. Pass the soup through a fine sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Reheat with milk.

  2. Stir in the egg yolks mixed with a little cold stock.

  3. Cook gently for 5 to 10 minutes.

  4. Strain the soup over the asparagus heads.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 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
Forms the main body and vegetable flavour of the soup.
Butter
Carries flavour during frying and adds richness.
Flour
Thickens the soup by binding with the fat and liquid.
Stock
Provides the liquid base that the soup is built on.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup when gently heated.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolk proteins thicken smoothly at gentle heat but curdle and turn grainy if the soup boils. Keep the heat low and stir steadily once the yolks are in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, butter, milk, egg, flour, parsley, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, milk, egg, flour, parsley, 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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