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Tomato Bisque

A tomato bisque made with canned tomatoes, milk, butter, and seasonings.

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

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 ↓

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Cook the tomatoes until soft, then strain them through a fine sieve.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the sugar, salt, and white pepper, then add the strained tomatoes.

  3. Heat the mixture until hot, then add the baking soda.

Finish and serve

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk for ten minutes.

  2. Add the butter to the tomatoes and pour the hot milk over the mixture.

  3. Do not mix until the last minute to prevent curdling.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 body, acidity and flavour of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the tomato's acidity.
Baking soda
Neutralises some acidity in the tomatoes, reducing the risk of curdling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with sweetness.

The step that matters

Do not mix until the last minute. Adding acidic tomatoes to hot milk can cause the proteins to clump and curdle. Combining them only at the end, with the mixture hot but not boiling, keeps the bisque smooth.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, milk, pepper, 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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