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Cream of Corn Soup

A creamy soup made from canned corn, milk, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cream of Corn Soup

Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Corn Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

  1. Remove the corn from the can, cover it with 3 cups of water, and simmer for 1 hour.

  2. Strain the corn and press it through a sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Scald 3 cups of milk and add the corn along with 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour; mix until smooth.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and a few drops of celery extract.

  3. Stir in ½ cup of cream and heat until warm.

  4. Remove from heat, add the beaten yolk of an egg, and serve immediately.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Corn + celerytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together920 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn
Provides the main body and sweet flavor of the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the milk so the soup becomes smooth and body-rich.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the soup.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the soup when added off the heat.

The step that matters

Add the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk proteins set at around 65 to 70°C and can curdle or turn grainy if the soup is boiling when it is added. Removing the pan from the heat first lets the yolk thicken the soup gently and smoothly.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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