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Asparagus Soup

A soup made from boiled asparagus, stock, butter, flour, cream, and spinach.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

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 ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the asparagus

  1. Cut the tops from the asparagus, about half an inch long.

  2. Boil the remaining asparagus.

  3. Cut off all the tender portions.

  4. Rub the tender portions through a sieve, adding a little salt.

Make the soup

  1. Warm the soup stock.

  2. Add the butter and flour, stirring until combined.

  3. Add the asparagus pulp to the stock and boil slowly for 15 minutes.

  4. Stir in the cream.

Color and finish

  1. Pound the spinach. Add a few drops of water to the spinach. Squeeze the spinach through a cloth. Heat the spinach until curdy. Strain the spinach liquor.

  2. Use the spinach liquor to color the soup.

  3. Just before serving, add the reserved asparagus tops that have been boiled.

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 + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

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

  3. Flour + spinachtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 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).

Butter and flour 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
Its pulp forms the body and flavor base of the soup.
Soup stock
Provides the liquid that the asparagus pulp is simmered in.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup slightly as it combines with the butter.
Cream
Adds richness and smooths the texture of the soup.

The step that matters

Boil the asparagus pulp slowly. Simmering gently after adding the pulp to the stock keeps the soup smooth and prevents scorching or a grainy texture from aggressive boiling.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

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