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Marie Paidar

A tomato soup with a white sauce of butter, flour, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Marie Paidar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cook one small onion with a quart of milk.

Make the white sauce

  1. Melt two tablespoons of butter.

  2. Add two tablespoons of flour to the butter.

  3. Season with pepper, salt, and two teaspoons of sugar.

  4. Add two-thirds cup of hot milk, then add the rest gradually.

Finish the soup

  1. Heat one pint of strained tomatoes.

  2. Add one-fourth teaspoon of soda to the tomatoes.

  3. When the bubbling stops, add the tomatoes to the white sauce.

  4. Bring the soup to a boil and serve immediately.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

827Calories
24 gProtein
21 gFat
136 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Soupnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Paidar, Marie, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the base of the white sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a smooth, body-giving sauce.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid that gives the soup its smooth, mellow texture.
Strained tomatoes
Provide the main flavor, color, and acidity of the soup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that softens the sharpness of the tomatoes.
Soda
Neutralizes some tomato acid, reducing the risk of the milk curdling.

The step that matters

Adding the tomatoes to the white sauce. Tomato acid can curdle hot milk proteins. The soda neutralizes some of that acid, and waiting for the fizzing to stop lets the gas escape before the tomatoes are added.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, tomato, milk, pepper. 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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