Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 Soup Without Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Combine the tomatoes, water, salt, sugar, cloves, pepper, onion, and parsley in a pot.
Stew for 10 minutes.
Rub the mixture through a sieve and return it to the pot.
Thicken and serve
In a small bowl, mix the butter and flour together until smooth.
Stir this mixture into the soup to thicken it.
Serve the soup hot with croutons.
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.
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,768 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 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, acidity and flavour of the soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavour, and combines with flour to form a roux.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter, giving it body.
The step that matters
Stirring the butter and flour mixture into the soup. Flour clumps if added raw to hot liquid. Mixing it smooth with butter first lets it disperse evenly, so the soup thickens without lumps.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, clove, pepper, parsley, butter, flour):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, clove, pepper, parsley, butter, flour. 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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