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Asparagus Soup

A veal-based soup with asparagus, cream, and corn starch.

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 corn share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 84 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine veal and half of the asparagus with water.

  2. Cover and boil for 3 hours until the meat is tender and the asparagus is dissolved.

  3. Strain the mixture and return the liquid to the pot.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the remaining asparagus and season with salt and white pepper.

  2. Boil for an additional 20 minutes.

  3. Before serving, stir in the cream mixed with corn starch.

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 + corntop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together84 recipes

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

  2. Veal + asparagustop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together300 recipes

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

  3. Veal + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together247 recipes

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

  4. Veal + white peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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

Veal
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water, giving the soup body and a savory base.
Asparagus
Provides the main vegetable flavor and, once dissolved, thickens and colors the broth.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow texture to the finished soup.
Corn starch
Thickens the soup slightly when stirred in with the cream and heated.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream and corn starch. Cornstarch must be mixed with cream before adding and kept at a gentle boil or simmer briefly so it thickens smoothly. Added to hot liquid unmixed, it clumps, and boiling cream too hard can cause it to separate.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, asparagus, cream, corn):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, asparagus, cream, corn. 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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