Name: Corn Soup
Ingredients: 2 cups soup stock (veal preferred); 2½ cups water; 1 cup milk or cream; 1 can corn; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste

Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Corn Soup

Ingredients

Directions

In a pot, combine the soup stock, water, milk or cream, and corn.
Boil the mixture for at least 30 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Rub the soup through a sieve.
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.

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 + corntop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,324 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + corntop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together247 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Corn: Provides the main flavour and body of the soup as it softens during boiling.
Milk or cream: Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the soup.
Soup stock: Supplies the savoury base flavour of the soup.

“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.