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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled asparagus, cream, butter, and sherry, seasoned with cayenne pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Cream of Asparagus Soup

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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the asparagus

  1. Boil the asparagus in 2 quarts of water until tender.

  2. Mash the asparagus through a colander.

  3. Add 1 pint of the asparagus cooking water to the mashed asparagus.

  4. Heat the mixture slowly.

Finish the soup

  1. Boil the cream.

  2. Add the boiled cream to the mixture.

  3. Melt the butter.

  4. Stir the melted butter into the mixture.

  5. Season the soup with salt to taste.

  6. Thicken the soup with cornstarch as needed.

  7. Just before serving, stir in the sherry.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  3. Sherry + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Asparagus + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50 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
Provides the main flavour and body of the soup once cooked and mashed.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Cornstarch
Thickens the soup by gelatinising in the hot liquid.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with cornstarch as needed. Cornstarch must be heated to thicken; added to cold liquid it clumps, and overcooking can thin it again. Add slowly and simmer briefly while stirring to reach an even, smooth consistency.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cream, sherry, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cream, sherry, 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.

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