Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Tomato Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cook one quart tomatoes and one small onion chopped fine together, then strain.
Boil one quart milk alone.
Warm one pint sweet cream alone.
Make the sauce
Stir the boiled milk and warmed cream into the strained tomatoes with one tablespoon butter and two tablespoons flour (rubbed to a cream) and cook until thickened.
Add a piece of soda size of a large bean.
Finish and serve
Just before serving, pour the tomatoes into boiling milk, stir in cream, season with pepper and salt.
Butter can be substituted for cream.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Bean | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
-
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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 and sharp, acidic tomato flavour of the sauce.
- Milk
- Adds liquid and body, giving the sauce a smooth, mild base.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and a silky texture through its fat content.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and smoothing the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
- Soda
- Neutralises some of the tomatoes' acidity, mellowing the sharp taste.
The step that matters
Pour the tomatoes into the boiling milk just before serving. Tomatoes are acidic, and acid combined with hot milk can make the milk proteins curdle. Adding the tomatoes to the hot milk at the last moment, with soda already neutralising some acid, keeps the sauce smooth.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, butter, onion, flour, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Chivefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, butter, onion, flour, 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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