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Tomato Bisque

A tomato bisque made with tomatoes, spices, ham bone, milk, and thickened with cornstarch.

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

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Cook the tomatoes and strain them.

  2. Add baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and the ham bone; boil.

  3. Strain the mixture through a wire sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the boiling milk.

  2. Thicken with cornstarch.

  3. Add butter, pepper, and salt.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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 and acidic, sweet flavour of the soup.
Boiling milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the soup.
Cornstarch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, velvety bisque.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel at the end.
Ham bone
Contributes savoury, meaty depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Thicken with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be heated while stirred in liquid to fully thicken and lose its raw taste. Adding it to liquid that is not hot enough, or leaving it lumpy, leaves a thin or grainy bisque.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, ham, milk, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, ham, milk, 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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