Why it works: Veal and asparagus work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 300 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Asparagus Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the broth
Prepare 2 quarts of veal or mutton broth.
Make the asparagus puree
Boil 1 ½ cups of green asparagus tops in water with a little salt until tender.
Rub two-thirds of the boiled asparagus through a cloth or sieve to create a puree.
Finish the soup
Thicken the broth with the asparagus puree.
Chop the remaining asparagus into pea‑sized pieces and add to the soup just before serving.
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.
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Veal + asparagustop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together300 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal or mutton broth
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its meaty flavor.
- Green asparagus tops
- Provide the main vegetable flavor and, when pureed, the body that thickens the broth.
The step that matters
Rubbing the asparagus through a sieve. Pushing the cooked asparagus through a cloth or sieve breaks down its fibers into a smooth puree. Incomplete straining leaves stringy bits that make the soup feel coarse and gritty.
“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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