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Peanut Butter and Tomato Soup

A tomato soup flavored with peanut butter, paprika, and salt, simmered with boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and peanut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 315 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Peanut Butter and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Gradually add the tomato juice to the peanut butter and mix until smooth.

  2. Stir in the paprika, salt, and boiling water.

  3. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with croutons.

Optional variation

  1. Optionally, substitute well-seasoned soup stock and a little lemon juice for the water and tomato juice, reducing the salt.

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.

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 + peanuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together315 recipes

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

  2. Peanut + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,754 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Peanut butter
Provides the thick body, richness, and nutty flavor that make this soup creamy.
Tomato juice
Forms the liquid base and adds tangy acidity that balances the peanut butter.
Paprika
Adds color and a mild, sweet pepper aroma.

The step that matters

Gradually add the tomato juice to the peanut butter. Peanut butter is thick and sticky. Adding the liquid slowly lets it loosen and blend evenly, which helps prevent lumps and gives a smooth soup.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peanut, butter. 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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