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Asparagus Soup

A soup made with asparagus peas, points, stock, French roll crumb, egg yolks, cream, béchamel, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Boil asparagus peas in stock until nearly done.

  2. Add the crumb of the French roll and boil for a few minutes.

  3. Rub the mixture through a tammy into a small soup pot.

  4. Add asparagus points and additional stock, then boil gently until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Make a mixture of egg yolks and cream, strain it, and add béchamel.

  2. Stir the mixture into the soup pot while on the fire until it boils.

  3. Remove from heat and keep warm in a stew pan of hot water.

  4. Add a lump of sugar before serving.

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 + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Peas + eggtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,065 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the soup and give it a smooth, rich body when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
French roll crumb
Acts as a thickener, helping the purée hold body as it is rubbed through.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg mixture into the soup. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat, but if the soup is boiled hard after they are added they can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth, creamy one.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, egg, cream, sugar):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, egg, cream, 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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