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 ↓
Corn Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the corn
Drain the liquid from the corn and chop the corn very fine.
Make the soup
In a pot, bring 1 quart of water to a boil and add the corn. Simmer for 1 hour.
Strain the mixture through a colander and return it to the pot.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, then bring to a boil.
In a small bowl, mix the butter and flour to form a paste, then stir it into the soup.
Add 2 cups of boiling milk mixed with the beaten egg to the soup and stir well.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 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
- Corn
- Forms the main body and sweet flavor of the soup.
- Butter and flour
- Form a paste that thickens the soup as it is stirred in.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and richness to the soup.
- Beaten egg
- Enriches the soup and adds body when stirred in with the milk.
The step that matters
Adding the egg and milk. Egg proteins can scramble if the hot soup is too hot or the egg is added too quickly. Mixing the beaten egg with the milk first and stirring well helps distribute it evenly for a smooth texture.
“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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