Skip to main content
Main

Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made with asparagus heads, stalks, cream, white stock, cornflour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Asparagus and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,968 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup base

  1. Boil the white stock.

  2. Cut the heads from the asparagus.

  3. Add the remaining stalks to the stock.

  4. Cook until tender.

  5. Rub through a sieve.

Thicken and finish

  1. Mix the cornflour with a little cold milk.

  2. Add the mixture to the soup.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Add the asparagus heads.

  6. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  7. Stir in the cream.

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

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

  2. Asparagus + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 sieved.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth mouthfeel and mellows the savoury flavour.
White stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the savoury flavour through the soup.
Cornflour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells when heated in the liquid.

The step that matters

Adding the cornflour mixture. Cornflour clumps if added dry or to hot liquid unmixed. Blending it into cold liquid first lets the starch disperse, and it only thickens fully once the soup is heated.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

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

You might also like

Asparagus SaladAsparagus Salad77 recipesCream of AsparagusCream of Asparagus38 recipesBoiled AsparagusBoiled Asparagus27 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipes