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Cream of Corn Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled corn, milk, flour, butter, and egg yolks, seasoned with salt, red pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Cream of Corn Soup

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 ↓

Cream of Corn Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the milk in a pot until it reaches a boiling point.

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, butter, and egg yolks with a little cold milk until smooth.

  3. Add the mixture to the hot milk and stir well.

  4. Season with salt and red pepper.

  5. Stir in the corn 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

  5. Corn + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together943 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the other flavours.
Corn
Provides the main body, sweetness and texture of the soup.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the soup as they combine with the hot milk.
Flour
Thickens the soup so it becomes creamy rather than watery.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and yolk mixture to the hot milk. Egg yolks can curdle and lumps can form if the mixture meets boiling liquid too quickly or unevenly. Mixing it smooth with cold milk first and stirring well while adding it helps the soup thicken evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, milk, flour, butter, egg, 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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