Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Corn Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup base
Combine the corn and water in a pot and boil slowly for 15 minutes.
Press the mixture through a sieve.
Add the scalding hot milk or stock and season with salt, sugar, and white pepper.
Thicken and finish
In a separate bowl, rub together the butter and flour until smooth.
Stir the butter and flour mixture into the soup, stirring constantly until it thickens.
Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks. Serve immediately.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter, giving it body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel, and helps the flour blend without lumps.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the soup and add body and a silky texture when stirred in off the heat.
- Milk or white stock
- Forms the liquid base, adding creaminess and savory depth.
- Corn
- Provides the main flavor and, once pressed through a sieve, the soup's body.
The step that matters
Stir the egg yolks in off the heat. Egg yolks scramble if they get too hot, which leaves specks instead of a smooth, silky soup. Removing the pot from the heat before adding them lets them thicken gently.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, flour, butter, milk, sugar, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, flour, butter, milk, sugar, egg. 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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