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Cream Tomato Soup

A creamy tomato soup made with veal, beef bone, celery, tomatoes, crackers, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream Tomato Soup

Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a pot, combine the knuckle of veal, beef bone, and celery. Cover with water and boil slowly for 1 hour.

  2. Strain the broth and add the can of tomatoes. Cook for an additional 30 minutes and strain again.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the crushed crackers with the cream. Add some of the soup to the bowl and mix thoroughly.

  2. Pour the mixture back into the pot and boil gently for a few minutes before serving.

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. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  3. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Veal + tomatotop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together709 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

Veal knuckle
Adds meaty flavor and body to the broth as it simmers.
Beef bone
Adds savory depth and gelatin-rich body to the broth.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity, color, and the main tomato flavor of the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the soup.
Crushed crackers
Thicken the soup slightly and help the cream blend smoothly into it.

The step that matters

Adding the cracker and cream mixture to the soup. If the soup is too hot when the cream is added, the dairy can curdle. Tempering by mixing in some hot soup first helps the cream blend smoothly before it returns to the pot.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, celery, cream):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, celery, cream. 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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