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Mock Bisque Soup

A tomato-based soup thickened with milk and flour, seasoned with salt, pepper, sugar, and Tabasco.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Mock Bisque Soup

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Mock Bisque Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the milk

  1. Scald the onion with the milk.

  2. Remove the onion.

  3. Thicken the milk with flour diluted in cold water until smooth.

  4. Cook in a double boiler for 20 minutes, stirring constantly at first, then occasionally.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. In a saucepan, cook the tomatoes until the moisture is mostly gone, yielding about 2 cups of pulp.

  2. Rub the tomato mixture through a strainer.

  3. Add sugar and baking soda to the tomato mixture.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the tomato mixture with the thickened milk.

  2. Strain the combined mixture into a hot soup tureen over butter, salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce.

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. Milk + buttertop 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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup and, thickened with flour, gives it body.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy base.
Tomatoes
Provide the main flavor and acidity, and the pulp gives body to the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some of the tomato's acidity, keeping the soup from tasting sharp.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Sugar
Softens the tomato's acidity and adds a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding baking soda to the tomato mixture. Baking soda reacts with acid and releases carbon dioxide, so it foams when added. Adding it too fast or too much can cause frothing and an soapy, alkaline taste. Add it in small amounts and stir well before combining with the milk, so the milk does not curdle from the sudden change in acidity.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, tomato, pepper, sugar, sauce. 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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