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Mock Bisque Soup

A tomato-based soup made with milk, butter, corn starch, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Mock Bisque Soup

Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mock Bisque Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel the tomatoes.

  2. Boil the tomatoes until thoroughly cooked.

  3. Strain the tomatoes.

Make the soup

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Mix the butter with the corn starch.

  3. Stir the mixture into the scalded milk and cook for about 5 minutes.

  4. Add a pinch of baking soda.

  5. Stir in the strained tomatoes, salt, and pepper.

  6. Serve at once.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and gives it a mild sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping to carry flavour and smooth the texture.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the soup body.
Baking soda
Neutralises some of the tomato acidity, reducing sharpness and affecting colour.

The step that matters

Stir the butter and corn starch into the scalded milk while cooking. Corn starch must be fully mixed in and simmered so its starch granules swell and thicken the milk. If lumps form or it is undercooked, the soup stays thin or grainy. Baking soda reacts with acid, so adding it at the right point affects the tomato flavour and colour.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, 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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