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Tomatoe Soup

A tomato soup made with tomatoes, water, butter, milk, biscuits, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Tomatoe Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine tomatoes and boiling water in a pot.

  2. Add butter, salt, pepper, and baking soda.

  3. Stir in milk while the mixture is effervescing.

Finish and serve

  1. Roll the biscuits and add them to the soup.

  2. Bring to a boil and serve immediately.

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. 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. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Tomato + biscuittop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together105 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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, acidity, and flavor of the soup.
Baking soda
Reacts with the tomato acid to release carbon dioxide, causing the soup to fizz.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the tomato's sharp flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Biscuits
Their starch thickens the soup as they cook in the liquid.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk while the mixture is effervescing. The baking soda reacts with the tomato acid and releases carbon dioxide, which makes the mixture fizz. Milk is prone to curdling in hot, acidic liquid, so adding it while the reaction is active, as the record directs, is the moment to watch closely.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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