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Soup

Potage Aux Aspekges, or Asparagus Soup

A clear soup made with asparagus, cabbage, onions, carrot, parsley, peas, butter, beef consommé, stock, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Potage Aux Aspekges, or Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Scrape and cut the asparagus into pieces and place them in a basin of clear water.

  2. In boiling water, add the lettuces, green onions, carrot, parsley, and peas with salt; boil briefly and skim.

  3. Transfer the vegetables to a fine sieve to drain.

Make the soup

  1. In a large clean saucepan, melt the butter and add the drained vegetables; stir until completely mashed.

  2. Gradually add the beef consommé while stirring gently.

  3. Once well combined, add the sugar and a little more salt, then strain through a fine sieve.

  4. Mix in the beef stock and bring to a boil; cook for 1.5 hours before serving.

  5. Add the blanched asparagus cut into small pieces 30 minutes before serving.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together313 recipes

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

  3. Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Asparagus
Gives the soup its main flavour and tender pieces of vegetable texture.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as the vegetables are mashed into the base.
Beef stock
Provides the main liquid and savoury body of the soup.
Beef consommé
Adds concentrated beef flavour and a clearer, more savoury character to the soup.
Peas
Contribute sweetness and soft body when cooked and mashed into the base.
Cabbage lettuces
Add bulk and mild vegetal body that thickens the soup when mashed.

The step that matters

Straining through a fine sieve after mashing. Mashed vegetables contain fibres and solids that stay cloudy unless fully strained. Pressing and sieving removes them, giving a smooth, even texture in the finished soup.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, cabbage, lettuce, onion, carrot, parsley, butter):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, cabbage, lettuce, onion, carrot, parsley, 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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