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 ↓
Mock Bisque Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
Boil the milk in a pot.
In a bowl, rub together the butter and flour, then thin with a little cold milk.
Add the butter-flour mixture to the boiling milk and cook for 15 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and finish
Strain the tomatoes through a colander and stew them.
Add the strained tomatoes and baking soda to the soup.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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.
-
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).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main flavor and body of the bisque once strained and stewed.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy liquid base of the soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor in the thickened base.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk as it cooks with the butter, giving the soup body.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes some of the tomato acidity, keeping the soup from tasting sharp.
The step that matters
Adding the tomatoes and baking soda to the milk. Acidic tomatoes can curdle hot milk. Baking soda raises the pH and reduces acidity, but it also foams, so it should be added carefully and stirred in while the soup is kept hot but not boiling hard.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Chivefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, 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.
More tomato bisque recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes
Cream Tomato Soup28 recipes
Tomato Fritters23 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.