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Cream of Corn

A creamy soup made with corn, onions, celery, parsley, stock, butter, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine beef or veal stock, corn (if using ears), onions, celery, and parsley in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture together.

  3. Remove the corn from the cob if using ears.

  4. Pass the remaining mixture through a colander.

  5. Return the liquid to the pot.

Finish the soup

  1. Cut the corn from the cob.

  2. Add it back to the soup.

  3. Thicken the soup with butter and flour.

  4. Stir in the hot milk.

  5. Serve hot.

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.

  1. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Corn
Supplies the main flavor and body of the soup.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness as they cook down into the stock.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells when heated in the liquid.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, rich texture.

The step that matters

Thickening with butter and flour. Flour lumps if it meets hot liquid unevenly, so it should be blended smoothly with the butter first. Starch granules swell and thicken only as the soup heats, so the soup needs to stay hot while it thickens.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, celery, parsley, beef, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, celery, parsley, beef, butter, flour, 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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