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Cream of Asparagus Soup

A creamy soup made with butter, cream, asparagus, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream of Asparagus Soup

Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add the asparagus and cook until tender.

  3. Sprinkle the flour over the asparagus and stir well.

Thicken and season

  1. Gradually add the cream, stirring constantly until thickened.

  2. Season with salt and pepper 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Asparagus + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + asparagustop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,026 recipes

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

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

Butter
Carries flavor and adds richness as the fat in the base.
Asparagus
Supplies the main vegetable flavor and color of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup by its starch, which binds with the melted butter and liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, body-rich texture as it thickens the soup.

The step that matters

Gradually add the cream while stirring constantly. Flour starch needs to be dispersed evenly before the liquid heats and thickens. Adding the cream slowly while stirring prevents lumps and gives a smooth, even thickening.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Asparagusthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, flour, 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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