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Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with stewed tomatoes, onion, beef stock, sugar, salt, pepper, served hot with buttered bread croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

Why it works: Onion and beef 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the soup

  1. Stew and strain the tomatoes.

  2. In a pot, combine the strained tomatoes, sugar, chopped onion, beef stock, salt, and pepper.

  3. Simmer the mixture for about 30 minutes.

Make the croutons

  1. For the croutons, spread butter on both sides of the sliced bread.

  2. Cut the bread into small squares and brown them quickly in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup hot with the croutons on top.

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.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 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, flavor, and acidity of the soup.
Beef stock
Adds savory depth and liquid that carries the soup's body.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and savory base flavor as it cooks.
Sugar
Balances the tomatoes' acidity with a touch of sweetness.
Yeast bread
Forms the croutons, which brown in the oven to add crisp texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the bread brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Browning the croutons quickly. Bread cut into small squares can burn before it crisps if left too long in the hot oven. Watching closely and browning them briefly keeps them crisp and golden rather than dark or bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, beef, pepper, bread, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, beef, pepper, bread, butter. 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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