Cream of Asparagus Soup (1894)
Reader ratingsDelmonico’s cream of asparagus from Ranhofer’s Epicurean (1894): asparagus fried in butter, sieved with broth and velouté, finished with egg yolks and cream.
- Recipe makes
- 4 bowls
- Prep
- Cook
- Total
Make the velouté while the asparagus simmers in the broth, so both are ready to combine. The egg yolks and cream go in only a few minutes before serving, and the soup must not boil after that.
Pale green cream of asparagus soup with asparagus tips.
The story behind the recipe
Two soups followed the oysters on Ranhofer’s printed menu for the press dinner given for Charles Dickens at Delmonico’s on April 18, 1868: a clear consommé Sévigné and a crème d’asperges à la Dumas. James Parton, who sat through the dinner, remembered the second as “our cream of asparagus in the Dumas style,” eaten just before the timbales.
Where is the Dumas recipe?
The Epicurean, which Ranhofer published in 1894 as chef of Delmonico’s, puts the Dumas name on several dishes, from mushrooms and woodcock to beef minions, but, in our search of its text, on no soup recipe. What the book has is a plain cream of asparagus, recipe number 248, and that is the one given here. What made the 1868 soup “à la Dumas” goes unrecorded in a book printed 26 years later.
Ranhofer enriches the cream four times over: butter for the asparagus, a pint of velouté, one of his base sauces of butter, flour and stock, egg yolks and cream, and two ounces of butter worked in at the end. He even tinted it, with “spinach green or Breton vegetable coloring,” so the soup came to the table the color its name promised.
Read more about this recipe
What went with it?
Two garnishes, and the cook picked one. One was croûtons soufflés, tiny pellets of choux paste, rolled in flour and fried. The other was asparagus tops, cut from the spears and cooked separately. Two recipes further on, in a cream of Brussels sprouts, Ranhofer gives his measure for the finish: two egg yolks, a gill of cream and two ounces of butter “for every quart of soup.”
Making it today
This is half of Ranhofer’s quantities, with the velouté made in the same proportions as his but cooked in fifteen minutes, where his skims for an hour. The coloring is left out; the color here is the asparagus’s own. Of his two garnishes we chose the asparagus tips. The egg yolks stay, with the soup brought to 160°F (71°C) after they go in.
Parton said the whole dinner took three hours, and the story of Dickens at Delmonico’s sets out every course around this soup. Another green spring soup finished with yolks and cream opened a New York dinner in 1912: the Sorrel Soup, Printanière (1907), made from Escoffier’s Guide.
Bend some small green asparagus, beginning at the root end, so as to break it off, keeping only the tender parts (two pounds); cut into one inch length pieces, wash well, changing the water several times, then drain and throw into boiling, salted water, continue the boiling for ten minutes, then drain. Put four ounces of butter into a saucepan; when very hot add the asparagus, and fry colorless on a quick fire; moisten with two quarts of broth, and when done, drain and mash; then pass through a fine sieve. Add one pint of velouté (No. 415) to the broth, color it with some spinach green or Breton vegetable coloring, season with salt, sugar and nutmeg, and just when serving thicken the soup with raw egg-yolks diluted in cream, and work in two ounces of butter (No. 175). Serve separately some croûtons soufflés made with pâte à chou (No. 132) rolled in strings and cut in three-sixteenth of an inch lengths; these pieces to be rolled in flour, then rolled around in a sieve to make them round. Fry in hot fat; or asparagus tops may be served as a garnishing instead of the croûtons.
Recipe makes: 4 bowls
Ingredients
For 4 bowls. Quantities are shown as written.
Quantities as written here, for 4 bowls.
Soup
- Green asparagus, tender parts only1 lb
- Salt, for the blanching water1 tbsp
- Butter, for frying the asparagus4 tbsp
- Chicken broth4 cups
- Salt, for the soup1/2 tsp
- Sugar1/2 tsp
- Grated nutmeg1 pinch
Velouté
- Butter, for the velouté1 1/2 tbsp
- All-purpose flour3 tbsp
- Chicken broth, for the velouté1 cup
Finish
- Large egg yolks2
- Heavy cream1/2 cup
- Cold butter, to finish2 tbsp
- Thin asparagus tips, for the garnish3.5 oz
Measurement notes
Ingredients as written here
- 1 lb green asparagus, tender parts only
- 1 tbsp salt, for the blanching water
- 4 tbsp butter, for frying the asparagus
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 tsp salt, for the soup
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 pinch grated nutmeg
- 1 1/2 tbsp butter, for the velouté
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chicken broth, for the velouté
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tbsp cold butter, to finish
- 3 1/2 oz thin asparagus tips, for the garnish
Equipment
- Large saucepan for blanching
- Heavy soup pot
- Small saucepan for the velouté
- Slotted spoon
- Blender or food mill
Fine sieve
Whisk
Instant-read thermometer
Instructions
Cut the green asparagus into 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces and wash them in several changes of cold water.
Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil with the salt for the blanching water. Drop in the thin asparagus tips for the garnish and boil for 3 to 4 minutes, until just tender; lift them out with a slotted spoon and set them aside. Add the asparagus pieces to the same water, boil for 10 minutes and drain.
Melt the butter for frying the asparagus in the soup pot over medium-high heat. When it foams, add the drained asparagus and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, without letting it brown.
Pour in the chicken broth and simmer for 15 minutes, until the asparagus is very soft.
Meanwhile, make the velouté. Melt the butter for the velouté in the small saucepan over low heat, stir in the flour and cook for 3 minutes without coloring. Whisk in the chicken broth for the velouté a little at a time, bring it to a boil, stirring, and simmer gently for 15 minutes, skimming any skin from the top.
Lift the asparagus out of its broth with a slotted spoon and blend it smooth with a little of the broth. Press the purée through the fine sieve back into the rest of the broth.
Whisk in the velouté, season with the salt for the soup, the sugar and the nutmeg, and bring the soup to a boil. Turn the heat to low.
Beat the egg yolks with the heavy cream in a bowl and pass the mixture through the fine sieve, as his thickening (No. 175) is strained. Whisk in a little of the hot soup, then pour the mixture into the pot, stirring. Heat over low heat, stirring all the time, until the soup thickens slightly and reaches 160°F (71°C). Don’t let it boil.
Take the pot off the heat and stir in the cold butter to finish, a piece at a time. Ladle the soup into warm plates and lay the reserved asparagus tips on top.
Nutrition
380calories per serving
- Recipe makes
- 4 bowls
- Servings
- 4
Estimated per bowl (4) from USDA FoodData Central values for asparagus, butter, chicken broth, flour, egg yolk and heavy cream.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Keep the egg yolks and cream in proportion to the soup; a larger batch takes longer to thicken, so go by the thermometer.
Notes
Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.
Ranhofer’s two pounds of trimmed asparagus, four ounces of butter, two quarts of broth and two ounces of finishing butter are halved here. He gives no amounts for the egg yolks and cream; ours follow the measure he prints for the cream of Brussels sprouts on the same page, two yolks and a gill (half a cup) of cream for each quart of soup. His velouté (No. 415) is three-quarters of a pound each of butter and flour to four quarts of stock; our half pint keeps that proportion of butter and flour to stock, though he does not say how far his sauce reduces, so the quantity is ours. The blender, the times, the green coloring left out and the asparagus tips in place of the choux croûtons are our choices. Contains milk, egg and wheat. Chill leftovers within 2 hours and reheat gently, without boiling, to 165°F (74°C).
Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.
Sources and attribution
After Charles Ranhofer, The Epicurean (New York, 1894), no. 248, Cream of Asparagus with Croûtons Soufflés or Asparagus Tops; the soup listed as Crème d’asperges à la Dumas on Delmonico’s menu for Charles Dickens
See the original pages (scan at Internet Archive) (opens in a new tab)
Recipe details
- Course
- Soup
- Dish family
- Soups & Broths
- Era
- 19th century
- Source decade
- 1890s
- Main ingredient
- VegetablesMilk & cream
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Occasion
- State banquet
- Season
- Spring