Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Tomato Soup or Mock Hock Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the tomato base
Put one quart of tomatoes on fire and let boil.
When done, mash through a sieve.
Combine 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar, 1 teaspoonful nutmeg, and mace together, and put in tomatoes.
Add 1 tablespoonful of butter, mixed with a large tablespoonful of flour, stir all into the tomatoes.
Put on to boil again; stir until it boils.
Finish the soup
Quarter of an hour before serving, pour in 1 pint of milk.
Add pepper and salt to taste.
Stir until it boils up nicely.
Put in 2 tablespoonfuls of wine just before dishing up.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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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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Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + winetop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,759 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
- Form the main body and tart flavour of the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, rounding out the flavour.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with sweetness.
The step that matters
Adding the milk. Milk can curdle when it meets acidic tomatoes at a hard boil. Adding it late, then stirring only until it boils up, keeps the soup smooth.
Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, butter, milk, wine, flour, pepper):
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Cardamomabout as good a flavor fit
- Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
- Nutmegthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, butter, milk, wine, flour, 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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