Skip to main content
Main

Asparagus Soup

A soup made from asparagus heads, stalks, onion, milk, butter, flour, salt, and pepper.

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

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Cut the heads from the asparagus.

  2. Cook the asparagus heads in boiling salted water for 20 minutes.

  3. Cook the asparagus stalks and onion in 2 cups of water for 20 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Blend the butter and flour.

  2. Add 2 cups of boiling milk, salt, and pepper to the butter‑flour mixture.

  3. Mix the butter‑flour mixture with the cooked asparagus.

  4. Boil the mixture for 5 minutes.

  5. Strain the soup again.

  6. Add the asparagus heads to the soup.

  7. Serve.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 body of the soup, with the heads kept whole as a garnish-like addition.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and adds richness and mild sweetness.
Onion
Adds savoury aromatic flavour as it cooks with the asparagus stalks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and combines with flour to form a thickening base.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked with butter, giving it a smoother body.

The step that matters

Blend the butter and flour. Cooking the butter and flour together first, then adding liquid gradually, helps prevent lumps and gives a smooth, evenly thickened soup.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

You might also like

Asparagus SaladAsparagus Salad77 recipesCream of AsparagusCream of Asparagus38 recipesBoiled AsparagusBoiled Asparagus27 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes