Why it works: Tomato and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,034 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Tomato and Vermicelli Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Strain the stewed tomatoes and put them in a pot to boil.
Cook the broken vermicelli in boiling water for 10 minutes.
Add the cooked vermicelli to the tomatoes.
Season the soup with salt.
Thicken and serve
If the soup is too thin, mix a little cornstarch with cold water and add the mixture to the soup.
Allow it to boil for a few more minutes.
Just before serving, stir in a few spoonfuls of sweet cream if desired.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Tomato + creamtop 21% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,034 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stewed tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the soup.
- Broken vermicelli
- Adds starchy body and a soft, noodle-like texture to the soup.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the soup when mixed with cold water and boiled.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and softens the sharp acidity of the tomatoes.
The step that matters
Adding the cornstarch slurry. Cornstarch must be mixed with cold water first, then added to hot liquid and boiled briefly. Added dry or without stirring, it clumps and does not thicken evenly.
“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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