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Corn Soup

A creamy soup made with corn, beef stock, milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the corn and stock

  1. Cut the corn from the cobs.

  2. Boil the cobs in the beef stock.

  3. Chop the corn.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and sauté the onion until soft.

  2. Add the flour and stir to make a roux.

  3. Gradually add the milk and beef stock, stirring constantly.

  4. Add the chopped corn, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  5. Simmer for 15 minutes, then serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base of the soup.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavor and enriches the soup with fat.
Flour
Thickens the soup with the butter as a roux.
Corn
Provides the main body, sweetness and flavor of the soup.
Beef stock
Supplies the savory liquid base for the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and stock to the roux. Pour the liquid in gradually while stirring constantly. Adding it all at once lets lumps of flour form that do not smooth out, so the soup stays uneven in texture.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, parsley, beef, butter, flour, pepper, corn. 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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