Why it works: Tomato and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,034 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Macaroni Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Add macaroni to boiling water and boil for one hour on low heat.
Stir in strained tomatoes.
Just before serving, add cream.
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.
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Tomato + creamtop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,034 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Macaroni
- Provides starch and bulk, thickening the broth and giving the soup its body.
- Strained cooked tomatoes
- Supply acidity, color and a tomato flavor that forms the base of the soup.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, softening the acidity of the tomatoes and rounding the flavor.
The step that matters
Adding the cream just before serving. Cream held at a long simmer can curdle or separate when mixed with acidic tomatoes, so it is added last, off the heat, to keep the soup smooth.
“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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