Name: Corn Soup Without Meat
Ingredients: 1 can of corn; 2 cups of milk; 1 quart of boiling water; 2 eggs; 3 tablespoons of butter; as much flour as needed to roll the butter; 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Corn Soup Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

Put the corn into 1 quart of boiling water.
Stir in the floured butter.

Add the milk and eggs

Scald the milk in a separate pot and add a tiny bit of baking soda to the milk.
Slowly pour the scalded milk onto the beaten eggs while continuously whisking.
Add the egg mixture to the soup and stir for 1 minute.
Stir in the parsley, salt, and pepper to taste.

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.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together943 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn: Forms the body of the soup and provides its main sweet flavour.
Milk: Adds creaminess and softness to the soup as it is heated.
Eggs: Enrich the soup and thicken it gently when heated.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the soup.
Flour: Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring the scalded milk onto the eggs. Adding hot milk slowly while whisking constantly raises the eggs' temperature gradually, so they blend smoothly instead of scrambling into lumps when added to the soup.

Swap the parsley

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

Nutmegfits about as well
Cinnamonfits about as well
Parsleythe original
Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, milk, egg, butter, flour, pepper. 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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Corn Soup Without Meat