Name: Chicken Soup
Ingredients: 1 quart of soup stock; 1 tablespoon cornstarch; ½ cup milk (divided); 1 egg yolk; 1 cup peas

Why it works: Milk and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,309 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

In a pot, combine 1 quart of soup stock with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in ½ cup of milk.
Cook for 10 minutes.
Beat the yolk of 1 egg with the remaining ½ cup of milk and add to the pot.
Strain the soup and stir in 1 cup of peas.

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.

Milk + peastop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,309 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + peastop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,065 recipes

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