Why it works: Corn and celery work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 920 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓
Corn Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Flavour the stock
In a thin woolen cloth, tie the diced celery and add it to the stock.
Boil the mixture for 30 minutes, ensuring it does not burn.
Thicken the milk and combine
In a separate pot, heat 1 quart of milk slowly, reserving ½ cup.
In the reserved cold milk, dissolve the corn starch.
Slowly add the corn starch mixture to the warm milk, stirring until it thickens.
Combine the thickened milk with the stock and corn.
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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Corn + celerytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together920 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Beef + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,028 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Beef + milktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
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Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,370 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef or mutton stock
- Forms the liquid base and carries the savory flavour of the soup.
- Corn
- Adds sweetness and body to the soup.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softness to the soup.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the soup a smooth, velvety body.
- Celery
- Adds a fresh, aromatic flavour to the stock.
The step that matters
Adding the corn starch mixture to the warm milk. Corn starch must be fully dissolved in cold milk first, then added slowly while stirring. Dumping it in dry or all at once causes clumps, because the starch granules swell and thicken only when heated, and uneven contact makes lumps that do not smooth out.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, corn, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Pepperfits about as well
- Celerythe original
- Oreganofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, corn, 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.
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