Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,092 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Combine beef stock, tomatoes, and chopped onion in a pot and bring to a boil.
Once the onion is cooked, mix flour and butter together until smooth, then stir into the pot.
Add seasoning and let it boil for a few minutes.
Strain the soup through a colander and serve with toasted bread.
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.
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,013 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it a smooth, fuller body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps blend the flour smoothly into the soup.
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, moisture and tangy acidity of the soup.
- Beef stock
- Forms the savory liquid base that carries the other flavors.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour and butter into the pot. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps easily. Mixing it smooth with butter first lets it disperse evenly, so the soup thickens without lumps.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, flour, butter, bread):
- Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
- Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
- Chiveabout as good a flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, flour, butter, bread. 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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