Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the flour in the butter over medium heat.
Add the strained tomatoes and milk.
Season with salt, pepper, and celery powder.
Stir well and heat through before serving.
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.
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Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Browned in butter, it thickens the soup and gives it a body.
- Butter
- Carries the browning of the flour and adds richness to the soup.
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main flavor and acidity, and most of the soup's liquid body.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the acidity of the tomatoes.
The step that matters
Brown the flour in the butter. Flour browned too quickly over high heat can scorch and taste bitter, while under-browned flour leaves a raw floury flavor and weaker thickening. Medium heat and steady stirring let the flour cook evenly before the liquids go in.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, pepper, celery):
- Carrotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, pepper, celery. 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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