Name: Green Corn Soup
Ingredients: 1 pint grated corn; 1 quart milk; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 small onion, chopped; 1 egg; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste; Fresh parsley, chopped, to taste

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Green Corn Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

Boil the grated corn in water for 30 minutes.

Make the soup

In a separate pot, melt the butter and sauté the chopped onion until soft.
Add the boiled corn, milk, and beaten egg to the pot.
Season with salt, pepper, and parsley.
Stir well and heat through before serving.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Grated corn: Provides the main body and sweet corn flavour of the soup.
Milk: Adds liquid and creaminess, giving the soup a smooth, rich texture.
Egg: Helps thicken the soup and bind it slightly when heated.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, and carries flavour from the sautéed onion.

The step that matters

Adding the egg. Beaten egg can scramble into lumps if the soup is too hot. Stir it in gently over moderate heat so it thickens the soup smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, milk, butter, egg, pepper, parsley):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Carrotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, milk, butter, egg, pepper, parsley. 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.