Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cream of Asparagus
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Cut off the heads of the asparagus and chop the stalks.
Simmer the chopped stalks in the white stock for 30 minutes.
Make the soup
In a separate pan, fry the onion in butter until yellow.
Add the flour to the onion and mix well.
Slowly add the stock to the onion mixture and simmer for 10 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.
Stir in the cream, salt, pepper, and sugar.
When nearly boiling, add the asparagus heads but do not boil after adding the cream.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + asparagustop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,212 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + asparagustop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together936 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Butter
- Fats the onion as it fries, carrying flavor and keeping it from sticking.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock into a smooth, body-rich soup when cooked with the butter and onion.
- Cream or milk
- Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished soup.
- Asparagus
- Provides the main vegetable flavor and color of the soup.
The step that matters
Do not boil after adding the cream. Boiling cream can cause it to separate and curdle, leaving the soup grainy instead of smooth. Adding the asparagus heads near boiling and then holding the heat below a boil keeps the texture silky.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, cream, flour, sugar, butter, asparagus):
- Capersfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Garlicfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, cream, flour, sugar, butter, asparagus. 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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