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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A soup made from beef stock, asparagus, onion, celery, parsley, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Cream of Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Combine beef stock, asparagus, onion, celery, and parsley in a pot.

  2. Cook the mixture for 30 minutes.

  3. Rub the mixture through a puree sieve to remove solids.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Whisk together the egg yolks and cream in a bowl.

  2. Stir in 1 cup of the hot soup to temper the egg mixture.

  3. Add the egg and cream mixture back to the soup and return to heat.

  4. Stir constantly until just boiling.

  5. Serve immediately.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Asparagus + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together378 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable flavor and body of the soup.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup and give it a silky, rich texture when gently heated.
Thin cream
Adds richness and smoothness, softening the soup's flavor and mouthfeel.
Beef stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the asparagus flavor.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until just boiling. Egg yolks can scramble and curdle if the soup overheats or boils too long after tempering. Constant stirring and stopping at a light boil keeps the custard-like texture smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, asparagus, celery, parsley, pepper, egg, cream):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, asparagus, celery, parsley, pepper, egg, cream. 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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