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Puree of Asparagus a LA Conde

A pureed asparagus soup with spinach, parsley, green onions, velouté sauce, 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 of Asparagus a LA Conde

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Break off the heads of the asparagus, ensuring they snap off easily.

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

  3. In a large pot, bring water with a handful of coarse sea salt to a boil.

  4. Drain the vegetables.

  5. Add them to the boiling water.

  6. Cook until tender.

  7. Drain again.

  8. Rinse with cold water to retain their color.

Make the purée

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

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

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

  4. Cool it in the refrigerator.

Serve

  1. Ten minutes before serving, reheat the soup until nearly boiling.

  2. Remove from heat.

  3. Stir in a pat of butter and a small piece of glaze.

  4. Serve with 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

Asparagus
Forms the main body and green flavour of the purée.
Veloute sauce
Adds body and creaminess, giving the purée a smooth, rich texture.
Butter
Adds fat and a silky finish when stirred in at the end.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the vegetables.

The step that matters

Rinse with cold water to retain their color. Vegetables cooked in boiling water keep cooking from residual heat. Chilling them quickly stops this and helps keep the bright green color, which otherwise dulls.

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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