Why it works: Asparagus and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,212 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Cream of Asparagus Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the asparagus
Cut the tops off the asparagus and parboil them separately.
Make the soup
Cut the stalks into short lengths and cook them slowly in 1 quart of weak stock with the minced onion for 1 hour.
Strain the mixture and press it through a colander.
Return the soup to the heat and cook the reserved tips until very soft in the liquid.
Pass the soup again through the strainer, rubbing all the pulp through the mesh.
Proceed as you would with other cream soups.
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.
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Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked 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 stalks
- Slow cooking breaks them down so they release flavour and body into the stock.
- Asparagus tops
- Tender tips add delicate flavour and a fresh green appearance to the finished soup.
- Onion
- Adds savory aromatic flavour to the stock as it cooks with the asparagus.
The step that matters
Pressing the pulp through the strainer. Rubbing the cooked stalks through the mesh breaks down fibres and releases starch and pulp, which gives the soup its smooth, creamy body. Skipping or rushing this leaves the texture coarse and fibrous.
“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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