Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cream of Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Cook the tomatoes in water until tender.
Rub the cooked tomatoes through a sieve.
Make the soup
Place the sieved tomatoes on the stove and bring to a boil, then add the baking soda.
Once the effervescence stops, add the boiling milk, rolled crackers, sugar, and a little butter and salt.
Boil for a few minutes and serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Milk and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 77,875 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Form the soup's main body and provide its tomato flavour and acidity.
- Sweet milk
- Adds creaminess and richness, mellowing the tomato's sharpness.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises tomato acidity, causing effervescence and a smoother, less sharp soup.
- Crackers
- Thicken the soup as they soften and absorb liquid.
- Sugar
- Balances the tomato's acidity with sweetness.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda to the boiling tomatoes. Baking soda reacts with tomato acid and foams vigorously. Adding it to tomatoes that are not hot enough, or adding milk before the fizzing stops, can curdle the milk or cause the soup to boil over. Wait for the effervescence to settle before adding the milk.
“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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