Skip to main content
Main

Cream of Corn

A creamy corn soup made with sweet corn, cream, butter, flour, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and butter 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 Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

  1. Grate the corn.

  2. Boil the cobs in water for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the cobs.

  4. Add the grated corn.

  5. Simmer until very tender.

  6. Strain the mixture through a colander, pressing as much pulp as possible through.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the cream with baking soda in a double boiler.

  2. Mix flour and butter into a smooth paste.

  3. Add enough cream to thin the paste.

  4. When the cream boils, stir in the butter and flour mixture.

  5. Cook for several minutes.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Gradually stir in the beaten egg yolks, ensuring they do not curdle.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the mixture with the corn.

  2. Bring to a boil while stirring.

  3. Season and serve.

  4. If the soup is too thick, add a little hot milk.

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Sweet corn
Provides the main body and sweet corn flavor of the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture so the soup becomes smooth and body-rich.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup, adding richness and a silky texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps form a smooth flour paste.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat, and if the mixture is too hot or boils after they go in, the proteins scramble and the soup curdles. Stir them in gradually off the heat to keep the texture smooth.

“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.

More cream of corn recipes

Soup 63 See all 4 →

You might also like

Corn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesGreen Corn SoupGreen Corn Soup46 recipesCornmeal GruelCornmeal Gruel41 recipesCornmeal PuddingCornmeal Pudding32 recipes