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Mock Bisque Soup

A tomato-based soup made with milk, bread crumbs, and seasonings, served with croutons or crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Mock Bisque Soup

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Bisque Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the milk base

  1. Scald milk with bread crumbs, onion, parsley, and bay leaf.

  2. Remove seasonings and rub through a sieve.

Make the tomato base

  1. Cook tomatoes with sugar for fifteen minutes.

  2. Add soda and rub through a sieve.

Combine and serve

  1. Reheat bread and milk to boiling point.

  2. Add tomatoes and pour at once into tureen over butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Serve with croutons, crisp crackers, or soufflé crackers.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

837Calories
24 gProtein
22 gFat
138 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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 Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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 tang of the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base of the soup.
Bread crumbs
Thicken the milk slightly and give the soup body.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
Soda
Neutralizes some tomato acidity, softening the flavor and reducing curdling risk.

The step that matters

Pour the tomatoes into the hot milk at once. Tomatoes are acidic, and adding them to hot milk can cause the milk proteins to curdle. Pouring quickly into the tureen over butter, salt, and pepper, with the soda already added, helps keep the soup smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, clove, parsley, bread, milk, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, clove, parsley, bread, milk, 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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