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A tomato soup made with ripe tomatoes, soda, butter, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Serving Meals

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Put the tomatoes in a saucepan.

  2. Cook the tomatoes.

  3. Rub through a sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. Return the tomatoes to the fire.

  2. Add the soda.

  3. Skim off the yellow scum.

  4. Add the butter, salt and pepper to taste.

  5. Turn in the previously heated milk.

  6. Let all boil up once.

  7. Serve immediately.

By United Methodist Church (Grayville, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the soup's base and give it its main tomato flavour and body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the tomato acidity into a smooth, rich soup.
Soda
Neutralises some of the tomato acid, which helps keep the milk from curdling.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Turn in the previously heated milk. Tomato acid can curdle milk, especially when the two are very hot together. Adding the soda first lowers the acidity, and warming the milk beforehand keeps the temperature change gentle. Letting it boil hard after that can still cause separation.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, milk, butter, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, milk, butter, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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