Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,923 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel the onions and chop roughly.
Brown the onions with the butter in the saucepan in which the soup is made.
Make the soup
When the onions are browned, add the tomatoes (fresh ones sliced if fresh) and 3 pints of water.
Let all cook together for 1/2 an hour.
Drain the liquid through a sieve without rubbing anything through.
Return the liquid to the saucepan, add the seasoning (pepper, salt, bay leaves) and the vermicelli.
Allow the soup to cook until the vermicelli is soft, about 10 minutes.
Optionally, use sago, tapioca, or dried julienne instead of vermicelli.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned 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 acidic, sweet flavour of the soup.
- Onions
- Browning them builds sweetness and savoury depth as the base of the soup.
- Vermicelli (in the method)
- Softens in the broth to add body and texture to the soup.
The step that matters
Brown the onions. Onions browned slowly in butter develop sweet, deep flavour through caramelisation. Pale or burnt onions noticeably change the taste of the finished soup.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Eggplantbetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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