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Tomato Cream Soup

A tomato soup thickened with butter and flour, finished with milk and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Cream Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. If using fresh tomatoes, cut them into slices and stew with onion, bay leaf, cloves, parsley, and water until tender.

  2. If using canned tomatoes, omit the water.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve, rubbing all the pulp through.

Make the soup

  1. Blend the flour and butter until smooth.

  2. Add the hot tomato mixture to the flour and butter, stirring until boiling.

  3. Stir in the baking soda.

  4. Just before serving, add the scalded milk.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavour and acidity of the soup.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the soup as it comes to the boil.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralises some of the tomato acidity, softening the flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the hot tomato mixture into the flour and butter. Adding hot liquid to a roux all at once can cause lumps. Stirring steadily while bringing it to a boil lets the starch swell evenly and thicken the soup smoothly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, butter, flour, milk, clove, 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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