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Puree Op Asparagus a LA Conde

A green asparagus puree served with butter, glaze, and 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 Op Asparagus a LA Conde

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Break off the heads of the asparagus so they snap off easily, indicating they are young and tender.

  2. Soak the asparagus, spinach, parsley, and green onions in a large pan of cold water.

  3. Bring a large stewpan of water with a handful of coarse sea salt to a boil.

  4. Drain the vegetables.

  5. Add the vegetables to the boiling water and boil until tender.

  6. Drain the vegetables again and rinse with cold water to retain their green color.

Make the puree

  1. Combine the drained vegetables with Veloute sauce, sugar, nutmeg, and salt in a medium-sized stewpan.

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

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

  4. Cool the puree in the refrigerator to retain color and flavor.

Serve

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

  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

Asparagus
Provides the main flavor and the green puree base.
Veloute sauce
Adds body and creaminess, giving the puree a smooth, thick texture.
Spinach
Adds extra green color and a mild, earthy flavor to the puree.
Pounded sugar
Balances the vegetables' bitterness with a touch of sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred in before serving.

The step that matters

Rinsing and cooling to keep the green color. Vegetables turn dull olive when overcooked or left hot. Draining, rinsing in cold water and chilling the puree stop the cooking quickly and help preserve the bright green color and fresh flavor.

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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