Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,377 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Simple Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Combine tomatoes, water, bay leaf, and celery seed in a pot.
In a separate bowl, rub together butter and flour.
Stir the butter‑flour mixture into the tomato mixture.
Cook for 5 minutes, then strain the soup.
Serve
Reheat the strained soup and serve.
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.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Celery + flourtop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,905 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,065 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and smooths the texture.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter, giving it body.
The step that matters
Stirring the butter-flour mixture into the tomatoes. Flour clumps if added raw to hot liquid. Rubbing it with butter first coats the particles so they disperse, and the mixture thickens smoothly as it cooks.
Flavor stand-ins for the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, flour):
- Jalapenobetter flavor fit
- Capersbetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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