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Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made with asparagus, stock, onion, butter, flour, and milk.

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

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 ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup base

  1. Clean the asparagus, reserving the tips.

  2. Combine the stock and cold water in a pot and bring to a boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Drain the asparagus and add the stock and onion; boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Rub the mixture through a sieve and return to the pot.

Make the roux and finish

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and whisk in the flour to make a roux.

  2. Add the roux to the asparagus mixture, stirring until thick and bubbling.

  3. Stir in the scalded milk, salt, and pepper, and heat until it just bubbles.

  4. Serve immediately, garnished with a tablespoon of whipped cream on top.

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. 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 once boiled and sieved.
Butter
Carries flavour and enriches the soup as the base of the roux.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked with butter into a roux.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mildness, softening the soup's texture.
White stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the asparagus flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the roux to the hot soup. Stirring the roux into simmering liquid while whisking keeps flour evenly dispersed, so the soup thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

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

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

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