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Cream of Tomato Soup

A tomato soup thickened with milk and cornstarch, flavored with sugar, cloves, onion, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Cream of Tomato Soup

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Combine 1 pint of water, tomatoes, sugar, cloves, onion, and parsley in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 15-20 minutes.

  3. Add baking soda and strain the mixture.

Make the milk base

  1. Thicken 1 quart of milk with cornstarch in another pot.

  2. Stir and boil the milk mixture for 10 minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. Add salt, cayenne pepper, butter, and the strained tomato mixture.

  2. Heat through without boiling.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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 flavor of the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and gives it a smooth, rich body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk so the soup becomes creamy and smooth-textured.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some tomato acidity, reducing sharpness and helping prevent curdling.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the tomato mixture to the milk. Tomato acid can curdle hot milk. Heating gently without boiling, and keeping the tomato mixture alkaline from the baking soda, helps keep the soup smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, clove, parsley, 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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