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Tomato Soup

A soup made with tomatoes, water, crackers, butter, milk, baking soda, salt, and pepper.

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

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, bring 2 quarts of cold water to a boil.

  2. Add 8 large tomatoes and cook until soft.

  3. Stir in 4 rolled crackers, salt, and pepper to taste.

  4. Just before serving, add a piece of butter and 1 teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in 1 cup of milk.

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. Butter + milktop 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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Break down when cooked to form the body and flavor of the soup.
Rolled crackers
Absorb liquid and thicken the soup slightly as they soften.
Baking soda
Neutralizes the tomatoes' acidity so the milk is less likely to curdle.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mildness, softening the tomato's sharp acidity.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda and milk. Tomatoes are acidic, and adding milk to acid can curdle it. Baking soda neutralizes acid and raises pH, so it should be dissolved in the milk first and added just before serving, once the soup is hot but not boiling.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, butter, milk. 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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