Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Tomato Soup No. 2
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Combine tomatoes and boiling water in a pot and bring to a boil.
Strain the mixture and return to the pot.
Stir in baking soda, sweet milk, pepper, and butter.
Once boiling, add crushed crackers and salt to taste.
Serve
Serve hot.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the soup.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises tomato acidity so the milk is less likely to curdle.
- Sweet milk
- Makes the soup creamy and mellows the tomato sharpness.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel.
- Crackers
- Thicken the soup as their starch absorbs liquid.
The step that matters
Adding baking soda to the tomatoes. Baking soda reacts with tomato acid and releases gas, causing foaming. Adding it to hot, acidic tomatoes can cause it to bubble over, and if the milk is added while the mixture is still acidic it may curdle.
“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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