Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Pass the tomatoes through a sieve.
In a pot, combine the sieved tomatoes and 2 cups of milk.
Heat on the stove, stirring until it comes to a boil.
Add 1 tablespoon of butter, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
In a bowl, mix 1 heaping tablespoon of flour with ½ cup of milk until smooth.
Add the flour mixture to the tomatoes and stir until thickened.
Serve
Pour the soup into a tureen and top with 1 large cup of whipped cream.
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.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 flavour and body of the soup.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it is stirred into the hot liquid.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
- Whipped cream
- Adds a light, rich topping that cools and enriches each serving.
The step that matters
Adding the flour mixture. Flour must be mixed smooth with cold milk first, then stirred into hot soup. Added dry or in lumps, starch clumps and the soup will not thicken evenly.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, pepper, flour, cream):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, pepper, flour, cream. 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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