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Puree of Asparagus a LA Conde

A green asparagus puree flavored with spinach, parsley, green onions, velouté, sugar, nutmeg, butter, and glaze, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 of 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. In a large stewpan, bring boiling water with a handful of salt to a boil.

  4. Drain the asparagus mixture and add it to the boiling water; cook until tender.

  5. Drain again and rinse with cold water to retain color.

Make the puree

  1. In a medium stewpan, combine the drained vegetables with Veloute sauce, sugar, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Stir over brisk heat for about 3 minutes until it boils.

  3. Strain through a sieve into a large dish.

  4. Cool the puree in the larder to maintain its green color and flavor.

Finish and serve

  1. Ten minutes before serving, heat the puree until nearly boiling, then mix in butter and glaze.

  2. Serve with 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 vegetable body and green flavour of the puree.
Veloute sauce
Adds body and smoothness, giving the puree a creamy, thick texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred into the hot puree.
Spinach
Contributes extra green colour and soft, earthy flavour to the puree.
Pounded sugar
Adds a little sweetness that balances the vegetable flavour.

The step that matters

Rinse the cooked vegetables in cold water. Cooling the vegetables quickly after boiling stops the cooking and helps keep their bright green colour. Chlorophyll turns dull olive when overcooked or left hot too long.

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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