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Puree Asparagus, Conde

A creamy asparagus puree made with broth, herbs, butter, and served with fried bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Puree Asparagus, Conde

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Wash the asparagus well.

  2. Parboil the asparagus for 5 minutes, then immerse it in cold water and drain it on a sieve.

Make the puree

  1. In a saucepan, combine the asparagus with the boiling broth.

  2. Add the parsley and celery to the saucepan and cook on a brisk fire until done.

  3. Drain the mixture in a colander and remove the herbs from the mixture.

  4. Thicken the broth and let it boil slowly.

  5. Add the asparagus back to the broth.

  6. Pound the asparagus through a colander.

  7. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar.

  8. Cook for 25 minutes.

  9. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the mixture to the saucepan to keep warm.

  2. Stir in the butter until melted.

  3. Serve with small fried bread crumbs.

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.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Asparagus + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together378 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Forms the body of the puree and gives it its green flavour and bulk.
Chicken or veal broth
Carries the flavour and, once thickened, gives the puree its liquid base.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, glossy mouthfeel to the finished puree.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Fibres in cooked asparagus stay stringy unless they are fully broken down and pressed through. Pushing the cooked mixture through a fine sieve removes remaining fibre, giving the smooth texture the puree depends on.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, parsley, celery, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, butter):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, parsley, celery, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, butter. 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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