Name: Sweet Corn Soupr
Ingredients: 1 knuckle of veal; 4 calf's feet; several ears of young corn; 2 tablespoons butter; pepper to taste; 1 quart water for each pound of meat

Why it works: Corn and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Sweet Corn Soupr

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

Cut the veal and calf's feet into pieces.
Season the pieces with pepper.
Pour 1 quart of water for each pound of meat.
Boil until the meat is tender.
Strain the broth.

Make the corn

Cut the grain from the cob.
Cook the corn in another pot.
Mix the corn with butter.
Season the mixture with pepper.

Finish the soup

Use milk for the soup if available; otherwise, use water.
Stir the corn mixture into the strained soup.
Bring the soup to a short boil 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.

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.

Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Corn + meattop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together414 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + meattop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,890 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle: Releases gelatin and flavour into the broth as it simmers, giving body to the soup.
Calf's feet: Adds gelatin, which gives the broth a richer, more viscous body.
Young corn: Provides the sweet corn flavour and tender texture that define the soup.
Butter: Adds fat and rounded richness to the corn mixture.

“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.