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Soup

Tomato Bouillon

A clear tomato soup made with tomatoes, onion, water, beef extract, egg whites, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Bouillon

1 quart

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the tomatoes, onion, salt, water, bay leaf, and pepper rapidly for five minutes.

  2. Press the mixture through a colander.

  3. Add 2 cups of boiling water, beef extract, and slightly beaten egg whites.

  4. Return to the heat and boil for 5 more minutes.

  5. Strain through double cheesecloth to obtain 1 quart of clear, strong soup.

Serve

  1. Serve with bread fingers.

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.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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 flavour base and acidity of the soup.
Whites of 2 eggs
Coagulate as they heat, trapping particles so the soup clears when strained.
Beef extract
Adds savoury, meaty depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Strain through double cheesecloth. Egg whites must be heated and then strained through fine cloth; the coagulated whites trap suspended particles, which is what makes the bouillon clear rather than cloudy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, beef, egg, 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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