Why it works: Milk and butter 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
Cut the corn from the cob by slicing through the center of each row of grains, then push out the kernels and milk with the back of a knife.
Make the soup
In a pot, cover the corn with cold water and boil until tender, about 30 minutes.
In a bowl, mix the butter, flour, salt, and cayenne pepper with a little of the soup.
Stir the mixture into the pot and bring to a boil.
Add the milk and let it come to a gentle boil before stirring in the beaten eggs.
Do not allow the soup to boil after adding the eggs.
Serve very hot.
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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Milk + buttertop 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
- Provides the main body and sweet flavor of the soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it body.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the overall flavor.
- Eggs
- Set when stirred into hot soup, adding body and richness.
The step that matters
Do not boil the soup after adding the eggs. Egg proteins set and curdle when overheated, so the soup turns grainy and loses its smooth texture. Stir the eggs in off the heat or at a gentle simmer and keep it below a boil.
“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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