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Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made by stewing tomatoes, straining, seasoning, and simmering with stock, thickened with corn starch.

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

Why it works: Tomato and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,099 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes.

  2. Stew the sliced tomatoes for 20 minutes.

  3. Rub the stewed tomatoes through a colander to make a pulp.

  4. Season the pulp with pepper, salt, and sugar.

Make the stock

  1. Take the fat from the top of the cold soup stock.

  2. Heat the stock over the fire.

  3. Simmer the stock for 30 minutes.

  4. Strain out any meat and bones from the stock.

  5. Boil the strained stock for 3 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the tomato sauce to the stock.

  2. Cook gently for 10 minutes.

  3. Stir in the corn starch mixed with cold water.

  4. Bring the soup to a boil.

  5. Serve.

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.

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.

  1. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,401 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 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
Supply the main flavour and body, breaking down into the pulp that forms the soup.
Cold soup stock
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its savoury flavour.
Corn starch
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it body.

The step that matters

Stirring in the corn starch mixed with cold water. Starch must be mixed with cold water first and stirred into hot liquid so it disperses evenly. Added dry or lumpy, it clumps, and the soup stays thin or grainy. Bringing it to a boil activates the thickening.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, sugar, corn):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, sugar, corn. 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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