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Marie Paidar

A creamy soup made from corn, milk, onion, butter, flour, eggs, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 ↓

Marie Paidar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Heat corn, milk and onion, then press through a colander.

  2. Melt butter, add flour, and then add two-thirds cup of hot milk mixture.

  3. Cook until smooth, then gradually add the rest of the milk.

  4. Beat yolks, pour them gradually into the little thickened milk, then add the rest.

  5. Add salt and pepper.

  6. Cook, stirring constantly until smooth.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately with croutons or pulled bread.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

885Calories
29 gProtein
32 gFat
120 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the soup and enrich it into a smooth, creamy texture when heated gently.
Flour
Combines with melted butter to form a roux that thickens the milk base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and smoothing the texture of the soup.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, velvety mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the yolks. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they meet hot liquid too quickly. Beating them and adding a little hot milk first gradually raises their temperature, so they blend smoothly and thicken the soup without turning grainy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, onion, butter, flour, cream, egg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, onion, butter, flour, cream, egg, pepper. 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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