Why it works: Butter and milk match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,222 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: chestnut
Directions
Make the soup
Add one can of cream of corn, 1 pint of water, and 2 slices of onion to a double boiler.
Heat for ½ hour, then strain through a sieve.
Add 1 tablespoonful of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour, blended well.
Add 1 pint of sweet milk.
When the mixture starts boiling, add the cream of corn, salt, pepper to taste, and some chopped parsley.
Boil for a few minutes.
Serve
Serve with a tablespoonful of whipped cream on each cup or plate.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + milktop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Onion + beeftop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,091 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + barleytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together458 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Corn + barleytop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together128 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together41,494 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream of corn
- Provides the main corn flavor and body of the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter and milk.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the soup.
- Sweet milk
- Makes the soup creamy and smooth, adding moisture and mild sweetness.
- Whipped cream
- Adds a cool, rich fat topping to each serving.
The step that matters
Adding the flour and butter. Flour must be blended well into the butter before the liquid goes in, or it will form lumps instead of thickening the soup evenly.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, corn, flour, beef, barley, cream):
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Asparagusbetter flavor fit
- Leekabout as good a flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, corn, flour, beef, barley, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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