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Corn Soup

A simple soup made with milk, water, butter, flour, corn, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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

  1. Bring the milk and boiling water to a boil.

  2. Mix the butter and flour together, then add to the boiling mixture, stirring constantly until it boils.

  3. Add the remaining ingredients and let it stand over the heat for a moment.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately, but do not boil after adding the canned corn.

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.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 gives it body and richness.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, and combines with flour to form a roux that thickens the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked with butter and the hot liquid.
Canned or stewed corn
Provides the main corn flavour and sweetness, and body from its pieces.

The step that matters

Do not boil after adding the corn. Once the corn goes in, prolonged boiling can toughen it and break down the thickened texture, so the soup should only be held warm until served.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, parsley, butter, flour, nutmeg, 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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