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Tomato Soup

A beef-based tomato soup with celery root, parsley, celery leaves, onions, and a thickened flour‑butter roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

about 3 pints of soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Wash the beef in cold water and place it in a soup kettle with enough cold water to cover it.

  2. Skim the surface as it heats, just before it begins to boil.

  3. Cover and let it boil slowly for 5 hours.

Add the vegetables

  1. After 3 hours, add the celery root, parsley, celery leaves, and onions.

  2. After 4 hours, add the tomatoes.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a skillet, heat the browned flour and butter, then stir in a small ladle of the soup and boil until thickened.

  2. Remove the soup meat, then add the thickened mixture back to the soup with salt and pepper to taste.

  3. Boil for a few more minutes until ready. You should have about 3 pints of 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.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Beef leg
Gives the long-simmered broth its meaty flavor and body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fresh tomato flavor to the broth.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter, adding body and a toasted note.
Celery root
Adds earthy, savory flavor to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface as it heats. Skimming foam and impurities just before the broth boils keeps it clear and clean-tasting. Letting it boil hard from the start can cloud the liquid and emulsify fat into it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, parsley, tomato, flour, butter, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, parsley, tomato, flour, butter, 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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