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Tomato Soup

A creamy tomato soup made with stock, tomatoes, cream, crackers, baking soda, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Combine tomatoes and baking soda in a separate kettle.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove solids.

Finish the soup

  1. Combine the strained tomato mixture with stock, cream, salt, and pepper in a pot.

  2. Boil for five minutes.

  3. Add the rolled crackers.

  4. Allow to come to a boil again.

  5. Serve.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Tomato + creamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,034 recipes

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

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they 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
Provide the main body and acidic tomato flavor of the soup.
Baking soda
Raises the pH of the tomatoes, reducing acidity and mellowing their sharpness.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the soup.
Rolled crackers
Thicken the soup as they absorb liquid and soften.
Stock
Forms the savory liquid base that carries the other flavors.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the tomatoes. Baking soda reacts with the tomatoes' acids and releases carbon dioxide, so it can foam up and overflow the kettle. Adding it in measured amounts keeps the acidity reduced without making the soup taste soapy or metallic.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, pepper):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, 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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