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Cream of Asparagus

A creamy soup made from boiled asparagus, milk, butter, flour, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Cream of Asparagus

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 pulp

  1. Boil the tough parts of the asparagus stalks until tender, then mash and sieve to obtain 1 cup of pulp.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and flour together until smooth.

  2. Gradually stir in the milk and enough asparagus water to achieve a creamy soup consistency.

  3. Add the asparagus pulp and stir until smooth, then bring to a boil.

  4. Season with salt, white pepper, and nutmeg, then remove from heat.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg yolk with a little soup, then stir it into the soup mixture.

  2. Serve immediately, ensuring the soup does not boil after adding the egg.

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

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Asparagus + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + asparagustop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 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

Butter
Enriches the soup and carries flavour while it is melted with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy base when cooked with the butter.
Milk
Forms the creamy body of the soup.
Asparagus pulp
Gives the soup its main asparagus flavour and body.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the finished soup for a richer texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat. If the soup boils after the yolk goes in, the egg can curdle and the texture turns grainy. Beating the yolk with some hot soup first helps it blend smoothly.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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