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Tomato Soup with Rice

A tomato soup flavored with onion, parsley, and rice, simmered with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Tomato Soup with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato pulp

  1. In a sauté pan, fry the onion slices in butter over medium heat until softened.

  2. Add the chopped tomatoes and parsley, and cook for about 10 minutes.

  3. Remove the onion and parsley, then pass the tomato mixture through a sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. In a stew pan, melt butter the size of a pigeon's egg until bubbling, then sprinkle in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

  2. Stir in the tomato pulp and season with salt and pepper.

  3. If using, add the stock and return the soup to the heat until hot.

  4. Finally, stir in the cooked rice and baking soda.

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

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

  2. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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, flavour and acidity of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when frying the onion and starting the roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter and tomato mixture into a smoother, body-giving base.
Cooked rice
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture to the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity, softening the soup's sharp taste and deepening its colour.

The step that matters

Sprinkling in the flour and cooking for 1 minute. Cooking flour in melted butter for a short time forms a roux that thickens the soup evenly. Skipping the cooking or adding flour to a cold pan can leave floury lumps and a raw taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tomato, parsley, flour, pepper, rice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, parsley, flour, pepper, rice. 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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