Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Combine tomatoes and cold water in a pot.
Add broken macaroni, chopped onion, and rice.
Simmer for 1 hour.
Stir in butter, salt, and pepper 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 + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,065 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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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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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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 fruity flavor of the soup.
- Macaroni
- Adds starch and bulk, thickening the soup as it cooks and softens.
- Rice
- Releases starch during simmering, helping to thicken the soup slightly.
- Butter
- Adds fat and rounds out the sharp acidity of the tomatoes with richness.
The step that matters
Simmer for 1 hour. Simmering long enough softens the macaroni and rice fully and lets the tomato flavor deepen. Too brief a simmer leaves starch grainy and the soup tasting raw and sharp.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, rice, butter, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Okrafits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, rice, butter, 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.
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