Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cream of Asparagus
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the asparagus
Cut the tops from one bunch of asparagus and cook them in salted water for 20 minutes.
Cook the remaining asparagus in 1 quart of stock or water for 20 minutes.
Make the soup base
Fry the sliced onion in butter for 10 minutes, being careful not to scorch it.
Add the boiled asparagus to the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
Stir in the dissolved flour and cook for 5 minutes longer.
Pour this mixture into the boiling stock and boil for 20 minutes.
Finish
Rub the mixture through a sieve, then add the milk, cream, and asparagus tops.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Asparagus + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,212 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Provides the main vegetable flavor and the body of the soup.
- Butter
- Carries flavor and adds richness to the onion and the finished soup.
- Onion
- Builds a savory aromatic base that supports the asparagus flavor.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softens the flavor of the soup.
- Cream
- Adds fat for a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Frying the onion in butter. Onion cooked gently in butter turns sweet and mellow, while scorching makes it bitter and brown, which spoils the pale, delicate soup.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, butter, flour, milk, cream):
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, butter, flour, milk, cream. 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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