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 ↓
Cream of Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the tomatoes
Stew the tomatoes until soft and tender.
Add the baking soda to the tomatoes.
Make the white sauce
Heat the milk in a double boiler.
In a separate pan, make a white sauce with the flour, butter, and 1 cup of hot milk.
Cook the sauce for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add the sauce to the remaining milk.
Combine and serve
When the foaming has ceased, strain the tomatoes into the hot milk.
Serve immediately to prevent curdling.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Flour and butter 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
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and flavor of the soup.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base and gives the soup its smooth, rich body.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and milk into a white sauce that gives the soup body.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps form the white sauce with the flour.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes the tomatoes' acidity, reducing the risk of curdling in the milk.
The step that matters
Strain the tomatoes into the hot milk. Tomato acid can cause milk proteins to curdle when they meet. Adding the tomatoes once the foaming has ceased, after baking soda has neutralized the acid, and serving immediately, helps keep the soup smooth.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, milk, flour, butter):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Capersfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, milk, flour, butter. 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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