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 Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the asparagus
Cut the asparagus stalks into half-inch lengths and boil in salted water for 1 hour.
Drain through a colander, pressing the asparagus to extract all the juice.
Return the liquid to the heat and keep it hot.
Make the soup
In a saucepan, cook the butter and flour together.
Pour in the milk and stir until smooth.
Slowly add the asparagus liquid and the boiled asparagus tips.
Beat the egg yolks and gradually pour the hot soup over them, stirring constantly.
Return to the heat for 30 seconds, season to taste, and serve.
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 + 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).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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 flavour and the body of the soup from its tips and cooking liquid.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavour, and cooks with flour to start the thickening base.
- Flour
- Cooked with butter to form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth soup.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy liquid base of the soup and adds body and mild sweetness.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the finished soup, giving it a silky texture when gently heated.
The step that matters
Adding the hot soup to the egg yolks. Pouring hot liquid into yolks too quickly scrambles them. Adding it slowly while stirring constantly tempers the yolks so the soup becomes smooth and thick rather than curdled.
Swap the asparagus
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, egg):
- Chivefits about as well
- Potatofits about as well
- Leekfits about as well
- Asparagusthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, 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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