Name: Tomato Bisque
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; ½ teaspoon pepper; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon cornstarch; Dash of cayenne; Salt to taste; Tomatoes (quantity not specified)

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

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the tomatoes until very soft, then pass them through a fine sieve or strainer.
In a granite-ware saucepan, add the strained tomatoes and 1 teaspoon of baking soda; wait until it stops foaming.
Add the butter a small piece at a time to avoid an oily line.
Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.
In a double boiler, scald the milk, then stir in the cornstarch mixed with a little cold milk.
Let it scald for 15 minutes to cook the cornstarch.
Pour the milk into the tomato mixture, beat well together, 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Milk + tomatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,226 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).