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Cream of Tomato Soup

A tomato soup thickened with flour and butter, sweetened with sugar and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cream of Tomato Soup

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream of Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the milk and thickening

  1. Scald the milk with the onion in a saucepan.

  2. Remove the onion and mix the flour with the cold water, ensuring no lumps remain.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Cook the tomatoes for fifteen minutes.

  2. Add the sugar and baking soda to the tomatoes and strain through a sieve.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the tomato mixture with the milk mixture, then add the butter and seasoning.

  2. Strain into a tureen and serve immediately.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the soup into a smooth, creamy body when mixed with cold water first.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Whole milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and gives it body and softness.
Tomatoes
Provide the main flavor and the acidity that defines the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some tomato acidity, reducing curdling risk and mellowing the flavor.
Sugar
Balances the tomato's acidity with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Combine the tomato mixture with the milk mixture. Tomato acid can curdle hot milk when the two are combined. Adding the baking soda to the tomatoes first and keeping the mixtures from overheating helps the soup stay smooth.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, pepper, tomato, milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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