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Asparagus Soup

A soup made with asparagus heads, cut asparagus, onion, butter, water or broth, seasoned with coarse sea salt.

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 onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,212 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a pot, melt the butter and fry the onion until soft.

  2. Rub the cooked onion through a sieve and set aside.

  3. Add the water or broth to the pot and bring to a boil.

Cook and blend the soup

  1. Add the asparagus heads and cook until tender.

  2. Remove half of the asparagus heads and blend the rest until smooth.

  3. Return the blended asparagus to the pot along with the cut asparagus pieces.

  4. Cook until the cut asparagus is tender but still crisp.

  5. Season with coarse sea salt to taste and 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.

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 + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Asparagus + buttertop 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

Asparagus
Provides the main flavour and body, with blended heads thickening the soup and cut pieces adding texture.
Onion
Softened in butter and sieved, it adds a mild, sweet savoury base to the soup.
Butter
Fat that softens the onion and carries flavour into the soup.

The step that matters

Cook the cut asparagus until tender but still crisp. Asparagus turns dull and mushy if overcooked, so stopping when the pieces are tender but still firm keeps their colour and bite. Blending only the heads gives a smooth base, while the reserved pieces stay distinct.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, 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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