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Tomato Soup

A simple soup made with tomatoes, water, milk, optional cream, butter, 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: 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 base

  1. In a pot, bring 1½ quarts of water to a boil.

  2. Add 1 pint of tomatoes and let it boil.

Add milk and finish

  1. Stir in 1½ quarts of milk gradually while boiling.

  2. If available, add part cream.

  3. Once boiled, remove from heat and stir in butter, salt, and pepper to taste.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

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

  5. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main flavor and acidity, giving the soup its tangy base.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body, softening the tomato's sharpness into a smooth soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel at the end.

The step that matters

Stirring in the milk gradually while boiling. Tomatoes are acidic, and acid combined with hot milk can cause the milk proteins to curdle or separate. Adding the milk slowly and keeping the mixture steady helps it stay smooth.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Onionfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, butter, 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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