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Puree Oe Asparagus a LA Conde

A smooth asparagus puree flavored with velouté, sugar, nutmeg, and butter, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 274 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Puree Oe Asparagus a LA Conde

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Break off the heads of the asparagus so they snap off easily.

  2. Soak the asparagus, spinach, parsley, and green onions in cold water.

  3. In a large stewpan, bring boiling water with a handful of salt to a boil.

  4. Drain the vegetables.

  5. Add them to the boiling water and cook until tender.

  6. Drain again. Rinse with cold water to retain their color.

Make the puree

  1. In a medium stewpan, combine the drained vegetables with velouté sauce, sugar, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Stir over brisk heat for about 3 minutes until it boils.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a large dish.

  4. Cool it in the larder.

Finish and serve

  1. Ten minutes before serving, heat the soup until nearly boiling. Remove from heat.

  2. Mix in a pat of butter and a small piece of glaze.

  3. Serve with a plate of croutons.

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 + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Spinach + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Spinach + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,025 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Asparagus + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together566 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Young green asparagus
Provides the main flavor and body of the puree.
Velouté sauce
Adds a smooth, rich base that gives the puree its body.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, glossy finish and richer mouthfeel.
Spinach
Adds extra green color and a mild, earthy flavor.

The step that matters

Rinse with cold water to retain their color. Cooking green vegetables in boiling water releases acids that dull their green color; a quick cold rinse after draining stops the cooking and helps keep the bright green color.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, spinach, parsley, sauce, sugar, nutmeg, butter):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, spinach, parsley, sauce, sugar, nutmeg, 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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