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Cream of Corn Soup

A creamy soup made from canned corn, water, milk, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Cream of Corn Soup

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream of Corn Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Rub one can of corn through a sieve into a saucepan.

  2. Add two cups boiling water, a teaspoonful salt, one-fourth teaspoon celery salt, a few drops onion juice, and white pepper to taste.

Make the thickened milk

  1. Blend together in a saucepan two and one-half tablespoonfuls corn starch with three level tablespoonfuls of butter.

  2. Gradually add two cups cold milk and cook thoroughly until smoothly thickened.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the mixture to the corn pulp and cook together for five minutes, stirring constantly from the bottom so it does not adhere to the saucepan.

  2. Just before serving add one cup of beaten cream.

  3. Serve at once with crisp wafers.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

769Calories
22 gProtein
26 gFat
110 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Celery + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together920 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Milk + teatop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn
Provides the main flavour and body of the soup as a pulp.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk mixture so the soup becomes smooth and creamy.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour, and coats the starch so it blends smoothly.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that the starch thickens.
Beaten cream
Adds richness and a silky, light texture when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Stirring while the soup cooks together. Starch-thickened mixtures can scorch and stick to the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring from the bottom keeps heat even and the texture smooth.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, tea, celery, corn, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, tea, celery, corn, butter. 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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