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Cream Tomato Soup

A creamy tomato soup made with tomatoes, soda, butter, flour, salt, white pepper, milk, and tomato juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Cream Tomato Soup

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Cream Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Can tomatoes, 4 teaspoon soda, 1/3 cup butter, 1/4 cup flour, salt, 1/2 teaspoon white pepper, 1 qt. milk.

  2. Stew tomatoes slowly 1/2 hour.

  3. Strain and add soda while hot.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Make a white sauce of remaining ingredients, and add tomato juice.

  2. Serve immediately.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

612Calories
13 gProtein
13 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6

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

By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog]. 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.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Flour + white peppertop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,228 recipes

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

Soda
Neutralizes the tomatoes' acidity, which helps keep the soup from curdling and reduces sharpness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and forms the base of the white sauce with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the white sauce so the soup becomes smooth and creamy.
Milk (in the method)
Makes the soup creamy and mellows the tomato flavor.
Tomatoes (in the method)
Provide the main flavor, acidity, and liquid base of the soup.

The step that matters

Adding tomato juice to the white sauce. Tomatoes are acidic, and acid can make milk curdle. The soda neutralizes much of that acidity, and the soup should be served right away so it stays smooth.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour. 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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