Name: Puree Asparagus, Conde
Ingredients: 10 pounds asparagus, tender parts only; 1 gallon chicken or veal broth; 1 bunch parsley, garnished with celery; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Nutmeg, to taste; A pinch of sugar; ½ pound butter; Small fried bread crumbs, for serving

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

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

Make the soup

In a saucepan, combine the asparagus with the boiling broth and the faggot of parsley and celery.
Cook on a brisk fire until done.
Drain the asparagus on a colander and remove the faggot.
Thicken the broth and let it boil slowly.
Pound the asparagus through the colander and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and sugar.
Cook for 25 minutes.
Rub through a fine sieve and return to the saucepan to keep warm.

Finish and serve

Before serving, stir in the butter until melted.
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.

Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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 soup, giving it its main flavor and, once puréed, its thick texture.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished purée.
Chicken or veal broth: Serves as the cooking liquid, carrying flavor and setting the soup's base consistency.

The step that matters

Rub through a fine sieve and keep the purée warm. Pushing the cooked asparagus through a fine sieve removes fibers that would otherwise make the soup stringy and gritty. Keeping it gently warm, rather than boiling, stops the butter added later from separating and keeps the texture smooth.

Swap the asparagus

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

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
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.