Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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
Make the soup
Boil the chicken in 1 gallon of water until tender, about 1 hour.
Add the corn and simmer gently for 1 hour before serving.
Remove the chicken and reserve 1 cup of the broth if desired.
Finish and serve
Season the soup with salt, pepper, and parsley.
If desired, thicken the soup and serve without straining.
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,324 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Chicken + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,666 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Corn + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together943 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Gives the broth its body and savoury flavour as it cooks.
- Green corn
- Adds sweetness and starchy body to the soup as it simmers.
The step that matters
Simmering the corn gently. A gentle simmer keeps the corn tender and the broth clear. A hard boil can toughen the corn kernels and make the soup cloudy.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, corn, pepper):
- Basilfits better
- Cuminfits better
- Corianderfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, corn, 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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