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
Make the broth
Combine beef and cold water in a large pot.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours.
Add the corn and finish
Add cut corn (kernels and cobs) and tomatoes.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Remove the cobs from the soup.
Stir in milk, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Strain the soup and serve.
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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Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,099 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Beef
- Releases flavour and body into the water as it simmers, forming the base of the soup.
- Corn
- Adds sweetness and starchy body to the soup as it cooks.
- Tomatoes
- Contribute acidity and savoury depth to the broth.
- Milk
- Adds richness and a creamy texture to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Simmering the beef. A gentle simmer, rather than a hard boil, keeps the broth clear and lets the beef release flavour slowly. Skimming is not in the record, so this is a general point about the long cook.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, corn, pepper, milk):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits about as well
- Tomatothe original
- Carrotfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, corn, pepper, 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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