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Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled asparagus, broth, cream, eggs, and butter, served hot with croutons.

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

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine chopped asparagus and broth or water.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve to create a smooth puree.

  4. Return the puree to the pot and stir in cream, beaten eggs, and butter.

  5. Heat gently, stirring constantly, until the soup is smooth and heated through.

  6. Season with salt and serve hot, garnished 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.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Asparagus + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Asparagus + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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 once simmered and pureed.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the finished soup.
Eggs
Thicken the soup gently when heated, giving it body and a smoother mouthfeel.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder flavor and a smoother, glossy texture.

The step that matters

Heating the egg and cream mixture. Once eggs are stirred in, high heat can scramble them and leave the soup grainy. Heating gently while stirring constantly lets the eggs thicken the soup evenly into a smooth texture.

Swap the asparagus

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, 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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