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Tomato Bisque

A tomato bisque made with stewed tomatoes, onion, water, and seasonings, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Tomato Bisque

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 Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Make the bisque

  1. Heat the tomatoes, water, and sliced onion thoroughly.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve or fine strainer to make it smooth.

  3. Stir in the baking soda, Heinz catsup, sugar, salt, and pepper.

  4. Add the butter and heat to boiling point.

  5. Thicken the bisque with flour, stirring well.

Serve

  1. Serve in cups with buttered crackers that are browned in the oven.

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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Stewed tomatoes
Form the base of the bisque and supply its main tomato flavor and body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the bisque a smoother, rounder mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the bisque body.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some of the tomato acidity, mellowing the flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda. Baking soda reacts with tomato acid and releases carbon dioxide, so it can foam and taste soapy if added in excess. Stir it in gently and taste before adding more.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, sugar, pepper, butter, flour):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, sugar, pepper, butter, flour. 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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