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Tomato Soup

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

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 pot, combine the tomatoes and water.

  2. Add the butter, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the baking soda immediately after boiling.

  4. Add the boiling milk and rolled crackers, and mix well.

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 + eggtop 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
Form the soup's base and supply its bright, acidic tomato flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some of the tomato's acidity, making the milk less likely to curdle.
Milk
Adds creaminess, body, and mild sweetness that soften the tomato's sharpness.
Rolled crackers
Absorb liquid and release starch, thickening the soup and giving it body.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking soda right after boiling. Tomatoes are acidic, and heating milk in an acidic liquid can cause its proteins to curdle. Baking soda raises the pH by neutralizing some of that acid, so the boiling milk is less likely to separate when added.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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