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
Prepare the corn
Chop the corn finely and add it to the boiling water. Simmer for 12 to 15 minutes.
Rub the mixture through a sieve.
Make the soup
Scald the milk with the onion, then remove the onion.
Add the milk to the corn mixture.
In a separate pan, melt the butter and mix with the flour to create a roux.
Combine the roux with the corn and milk mixture.
Season with salt and pepper, and serve with freshly popped popcorn.
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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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Corn
- Provides the main body and sweet flavour of the soup once simmered and sieved.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and richness to the soup as its main liquid.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour, and forms the base of the roux.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup when cooked with butter to form a roux.
The step that matters
Combining the roux with the corn and milk mixture. Flour thickens only when its starch is cooked in fat and then heated in liquid. Adding the roux gradually and stirring keeps it smooth and prevents lumps, so the soup thickens evenly.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, butter, milk, flour, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against corn, butter, milk, 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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