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Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made with asparagus, onion, stock, cream, eggs, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Asparagus and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 566 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the heads from the asparagus and set aside.

  2. Chop the asparagus tops and onion.

Make the soup

  1. Place the chopped asparagus tops and onion in a pan with the butter and herbs.

  2. Fry gently for 10 minutes, then add the flour.

  3. Pour in the stock and simmer slowly for 1 hour.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Finish

  1. Stir in the cream, egg yolks, and salt.

  2. Reheat without boiling.

  3. Cook the asparagus tops in boiling stock with a little salt and baking soda.

  4. Add the cooked asparagus tops to the soup.

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 + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together566 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 the bulk of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot stock.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and gives the soup a richer mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the soup when heated gently.

The step that matters

Reheat without boiling. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, but at boiling point they can curdle and turn grainy, spoiling the smooth texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, flour, cream, butter, parsley, egg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, flour, cream, butter, parsley, egg. 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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