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Asparagus Soup

A soup made with boiled hen, asparagus tips, rice, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Asparagus and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 261 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the hen until tender.

  2. Pour the broth into a saucepan.

  3. Cut the asparagus tips into pieces about 1 inch long.

Cook the soup

  1. Add the rice and asparagus to the broth.

  2. Boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Season to taste.

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 + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together261 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hen
Simmered in water, it releases flavor and gelatin that give the broth its body and savoriness.
Asparagus tips
Add the soup's fresh, green vegetal flavor and tender pieces of texture.
Rice
Its starch softens during boiling and slightly thickens the broth, adding body.

The step that matters

Boil for 30 minutes. Asparagus tips are delicate and can turn dull and mushy with long boiling, while the rice needs enough time to soften fully. Watch the texture so the vegetables stay tender but not overcooked.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, pepper. 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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