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 ↓
Cream of Tomato Soup From Canned Tomato Pulp
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomato base
In a kettle, combine 1 quart of tomato pulp, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, salt, pepper, and 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar.
Boil the mixture for 7 minutes.
Make the milk base
In another kettle, simmer 1 quart of milk and 2 tablespoons of butter for 7 minutes.
Combine and serve
Add the tomato mixture to the milk mixture and boil for an additional 5 minutes.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomato pulp
- Forms the main body and tomato flavor of the soup.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes tomato acidity, reducing sourness and helping the soup stay smooth.
- Milk
- Provides the creamy base and mild, rich body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother mouthfeel.
- Granulated sugar
- Balances the tomato's acidity with a touch of sweetness.
The step that matters
Adding the tomato mixture to the milk mixture. Baking soda makes the tomato mixture alkaline, and combining it with milk can cause curdling if handled carelessly. Adding it gradually and keeping the heat controlled helps the milk stay smooth.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, milk, butter):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, milk, 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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