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Asparagus Soop

A beef and butter broth with asparagus, vermicelli, and celery.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and celery work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 378 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Asparagus Soop

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the beef

  1. In a large pot, combine the lean beef and butter. Cook over medium heat until the beef is browned.

  2. Add the brown ale and bring to a simmer.

Simmer and serve

  1. Chop the asparagus and add it to the pot along with the vermicelli and celery.

  2. Simmer until the asparagus is tender and the flavors meld together.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Asparagus + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together378 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Beef + asparagustop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together237 recipes

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

  3. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Butter + asparagustop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Browns in the pot to build savory, meaty flavor in the base of the soup.
Butter
Adds fat that carries the beef's browning and gives the soup a richer mouthfeel.
Brown ale
Adds liquid and malty, slightly bitter flavor as it simmers with the other ingredients.
Asparagus
Main vegetable that gives the soup its green flavor and tender texture after simmering.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that softens in the broth, adding body and starch to the soup.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetable flavor to the simmering broth.

The step that matters

Browning the beef. Cooking the beef over medium heat until browned triggers the Maillard reaction, which creates the deep savory flavors the rest of the soup builds on. Pale, undercooked beef gives a flat taste.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, asparagus):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Pepperfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, 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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