Name: Chicken Soup with Corn
Ingredients: 1 quart chicken broth; 1 large cup green corn, chopped fine; 1 cup cream; salt to taste; pepper to taste; butter the size of a walnut (if using milk)

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Chicken Soup with Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

In a pot, combine chicken broth and chopped corn.
Add cream, salt, and pepper.
If using milk, add butter.
Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes.

Finish

Strain the soup and serve hot.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Corn + walnuttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together349 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken broth: Forms the liquid base and supplies the savory flavor of the soup.
Green corn: Adds sweetness and starch that gives the soup body as it cooks.
Cream: Adds richness and fat for a smooth, velvety texture.

Swap the walnut

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

Peanutfits better
Beansfits better
Lima beansfits better
Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, corn, cream, pepper, butter, milk. 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.