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Tomato Soup

A soup made from sliced tomatoes, water, butter, cream, baking soda, and sea salt, optionally using canned tomatoes.

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

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the sliced tomatoes and water.

  2. Add the butter and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the cream and baking soda.

  4. Season with coarse sea salt to taste.

  5. If using canned tomatoes, substitute them for fresh tomatoes.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + creamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, moisture and tomato flavour of the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralises some of the tomatoes' acidity, mellowing the flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream and baking soda. Tomatoes are acidic, and baking soda reacts with that acid, causing fizzing and foaming. Cream can curdle in hot, acidic liquid, so it should be stirred in steadily and the soup kept from over-boiling.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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