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Shrimp and Tomato Soup

A tomato-based soup with shrimp, onions, herbs, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Shrimp and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shrimp

  1. Boil the shrimps in salted water with sweet herbs and lemon for 5 minutes.

  2. Drain, cool, and shell the shrimps, reserving ½ cup of the cooking liquid.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, stir the tomatoes, onions, sweet herbs, and butter over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.

  2. Add stock to cover the tomatoes and let them stew until tender.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve and mix with the reserved shrimp liquid and more stock if needed.

  4. Season with cayenne and bring to a boil, stirring until it thickens.

  5. Just before serving, add the shelled shrimps to the soup.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main protein and seafood flavor, and their cooking liquid adds savory depth to the soup.
Ripe tomatoes
Form the body of the soup and supply acidity and sweetness once stewed and sieved.
Onions
Soften during stewing and add savory sweetness that rounds out the tomatoes.
Fresh butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and giving the soup a smoother mouthfeel.
Stock
Provides liquid to stew the tomatoes and onions and sets the soup's savory base.

The step that matters

Passing the mixture through a sieve and thickening. Sieving removes tomato skins and seeds to give a smooth texture. Boiling while stirring reduces the liquid and thickens the soup, so it should not be left unattended to avoid scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, lemon, tomato, onion, butter, garlic, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Corianderfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, lemon, tomato, onion, butter, garlic, pepper. 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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