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Asparagus Soup

A veal and asparagus soup made with stock, cream, flour, and toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Asparagus and flour work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 936 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the veal, 1 bunch of asparagus, and water in a kettle.

  2. Boil rapidly for 3 hours until the meat is cooked and the asparagus dissolves.

  3. Strain the stock and return it to the kettle.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the second bunch of asparagus, cut into small pieces, and boil for 20 minutes.

  2. Stir in the cream or milk and flour, and bring to a boil.

  3. Serve hot with toasted bread.

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.

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.

  1. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Asparagus + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together363 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

  4. Veal + asparagustop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together300 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Gives the stock its meaty body and rich flavour as it simmers for hours.
Asparagus
Adds its vegetable flavour to the stock and, once softened, thickens the soup with its fibre.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the finished soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup, giving it more body when brought to a boil with the dairy.

The step that matters

Stir in the cream or milk and flour, and bring to a boil. Flour needs to reach a boil to fully swell and thicken the liquid. Dairy boiled hard can curdle or scorch, so keep the heat steady and stir constantly while it comes up to the boil.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, cream, flour, bread):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Arrowrootfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, cream, flour, bread. 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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