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Cream of Corn Soup

A creamy soup made with corn, potatoes, oysters, onions, butter, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cream of Corn Soup

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Corn Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

  1. Add boiling water to corn and cook for 5 minutes.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt butter and stir in flour until smooth.

  2. Gradually add milk to the butter and flour mixture, stirring constantly until thickened.

Combine and serve

  1. Mash the cooked potatoes and add them to the soup.

  2. Add the corn and oysters, and heat through.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, and 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  4. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup when thickened with the butter and flour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a smooth, stable sauce.
Potatoes
Mashed into the soup, they add body and a thicker, starchy texture.
Corn
Provides the main flavor and sweetness of the soup.
Oysters
Add a briny, savory flavor and tender bite to the soup.

The step that matters

Thickening the milk with the butter and flour. Stir the milk in gradually while stirring constantly, so the flour disperses evenly. Adding it all at once can leave lumps, and the sauce only thickens properly when it is kept moving as it heats.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, butter, pepper, milk, flour, oyster, potato. 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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