IllustrationWhy it works: Milk and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,223 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Add the tomatoes and crackers to the water, seasoning with pepper and salt.
When nearly done, add a piece of butter the size of an egg, one teaspoon of soda dissolved in one cup of milk, stir, and remove from the fire.
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.
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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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Milk + tomatotop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,223 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together81,222 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + eggtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together118,511 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Milk + eggtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together88,465 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + tomatotop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,890 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
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the soup.
- Rolled crackers
- Thicken the soup as they soften and absorb liquid.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises tomato acid, reducing sharpness and helping keep the milk smooth.
The step that matters
Adding the soda and milk near the end. Soda reacts with the tomato acid and releases gas, so it foams up. Adding it when nearly done and then removing from heat keeps the soup from boiling over and stops the milk from curdling under prolonged heat.
“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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