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Soup

Tomato Soup Without Meat

A tomato soup made with tomatoes, water, milk, butter, salt, pepper, and baking soda, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Tomato Soup Without Meat

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 ↓

Tomato Soup Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Cook the tomatoes thoroughly in the water.

  2. Scald the milk in a separate container over water to prevent scorching.

  3. Once the tomatoes are done, add the baking soda carefully to prevent overflow.

  4. When the effervescence subsides, add the scalded milk and season with butter, salt, and pepper.

Serve

  1. For a richer soup, use more milk than water and substitute cream for butter.

  2. Serve the soup with crackers.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 tomato flavor of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the tomato's acidity for a smoother soup.
Baking soda
Neutralizes tomato acidity, which causes foaming when it reacts with the acid.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda. Baking soda reacts with the tomatoes' acid and releases carbon dioxide, causing vigorous foaming that can overflow the pot. Add it slowly and let the effervescence subside before adding the milk, so the milk does not curdle from the sudden change in acidity.

“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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