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Cream Asparagus, Countess

A creamy asparagus dish with parsley, celery, cream, butter, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Cream Asparagus, Countess

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Cut the tender parts of the asparagus and parboil them.

  2. Immerse the asparagus in cold water, then drain.

Cook the soup

  1. Put the asparagus in a saucepan with boiling white broth, just enough to cook them.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and add the bundle of parsley and celery.

  3. When cooked, add the cream sauce, nutmeg, and sugar.

Strain, finish and serve

  1. Pound the mixture through a colander, then rub through a fine sieve.

  2. Return to the saucepan to keep warm without boiling.

  3. Before serving, add the butter and cream mixed with the egg yolks, stirring until the butter melts.

  4. Serve with asparagus tops and add green spinach color for a bright green soup.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 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. Pepper + celerytop 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 main body and green flavour of the soup.
Cream sauce
Adds body and a smooth, thick base to the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Butter
Adds fat for a glossy finish and a rounder, smoother texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup and add richness when gently heated.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks and cream at the end. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but if the soup boils after they are added they can curdle or scramble. Keep it warm, not boiling, and stir while the butter melts.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, parsley, celery, cream, sauce, nutmeg, sugar. 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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