Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Bisque

A creamy tomato bisque made with tomatoes, milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Tomato Bisque

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 Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Stew the tomatoes and strain them.

  2. Add the baking soda to reduce acidity.

Make the bisque

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk until scalding hot.

  2. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold milk, then add it to the hot milk.

  3. Cook for five minutes, then stir in the butter, salt, and pepper.

  4. Combine everything and bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve very hot with bread cut into dice and browned in the oven.

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. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 and flavor of the soup once stewed and strained.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some of the tomatoes' acidity, making the soup taste less sharp.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk as its starch swells and sets when heated.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base that gives the bisque its body.

The step that matters

Mixing the cornstarch with cold milk before adding it. Starch clumps when it meets hot liquid directly. Mixing it into a little cold milk first disperses the granules so the hot milk thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

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

More tomato bisque recipes

Soup 6 See all 83 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipesTomato FrittersTomato Fritters23 recipes