Name: Corn Soup
Ingredients: 1 small shank of beef; 2 quarts water; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; 4 medium tomatoes; 8 ears of corn; 1 quart milk; 1 egg-sized lump of butter; pepper to taste; 4 powdered crackers

Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Corn Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the beef in water for 2 hours.
After 1.5 hours, add salt, tomatoes, and corn scraped from the cob.
Fifteen minutes before serving, add milk, butter, pepper, and powdered crackers.
Canned corn and tomatoes can be used in winter.

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.

Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank: Simmered in water to build a savory broth as the base of the soup.
Corn: Adds sweetness and body to the soup as it cooks.
Milk: Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished soup.
Powdered crackers: Dissolve into the liquid and thicken the soup slightly.

Swap the tomato

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

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, corn, milk, egg, butter, 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.