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Soup

Tomato Bouillon

A clear, strong tomato soup made with tomatoes, beef extract, onion, eggs, bay leaf, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Kaufman, Nettie M · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Bouillon

1 qt.

Ingredients

Directions

Combine ingredients

  1. Add 1 can tomatoes and 54 teaspoons beef extract.

  2. Add 1 sliced onion and 1 teaspoon salt.

  3. Add 1 pint water and whites of 2 eggs.

  4. Add 1 bay leaf and little pepper.

Simmer and strain

  1. Boil rapidly for five minutes all of the ingredients, except extract and eggs, and press through a colander.

  2. Add 1 pint boiling water, the beef extract and slightly beaten whites of eggs. Return to fire and boil 5 minutes more; then strain through double cheesecloth, and you have 1 qt. clear, strong soup.

Serve

  1. Serve with bread fingers.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

374Calories
34 gProtein
20 gFat
11 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Kaufman, Nettie M. 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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Onion + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,333 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Onion and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,333 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

Beef extract
Adds concentrated savoury depth that gives the soup its strong body of flavour.
Eggs
Their whites coagulate on heating and trap fine particles, clarifying the soup for straining.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and aromatic flavour as it cooks into the broth.
Bay leaf
Releases a subtle herbal aroma during simmering that rounds out the soup.

The step that matters

Return to the fire and boil gently after adding the egg whites. As the whites heat, they coagulate into a raft that traps cloudy particles. Stirring or boiling too hard breaks the raft and leaves the soup cloudy, so heat should rise slowly and the soup be strained carefully through cloth afterward.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg. 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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