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Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from diced asparagus simmered in water, thickened with a butter and flour roux, and served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Use only the tender part of the asparagus and cut it into dice-sized pieces.

  2. Drop the asparagus into 2 quarts of boiling water that is slightly salted.

  3. Boil for about 30 minutes, or until tender.

Finish the soup

  1. In a separate bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of flour with 2 tablespoons of butter until smooth.

  2. Stir in 1 cup of cream or milk to the flour and butter mixture.

  3. Add this mixture to the boiling soup before serving.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  5. Serve with small squares of toasted bread.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 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
Forms the main body and flavor of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter and liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor into the soup.
Cream or milk
Adds creaminess and smooth body to the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and butter mixture to the boiling soup. Flour thickens only when heated in fat and liquid; if the mixture is lumpy or added to soup that is not simmering, it may clump. Stirring it in smoothly and keeping the soup at a boil lets the starch swell evenly.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, cream, pepper, bread):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, cream, pepper, bread. 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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