Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,099 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the clear soup and strained stewed tomato in a pot.
Add sugar, corn starch, and butter, stirring well.
Season to taste and bring to a boil for a few moments.
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.
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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Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,099 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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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
- Strained stewed tomato
- Provides the main tomato flavor and body of the soup.
- Clear soup
- Forms the liquid base that the other ingredients are suspended in.
- Corn starch
- Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it a fuller texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished soup.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the tomato for a rounder flavor.
The step that matters
Stirring in the corn starch. Corn starch must be fully dispersed before heating, or it clumps. As it heats, its granules swell and gelatinize, which thickens the soup evenly.
“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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