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Tomato Cream Soup

A tomato soup thickened with rice, butter, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Tomato Cream Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes or open the can.

  2. Pick over and wash the rice in cold water.

  3. In a bowl, rub the butter and flour together to form a smooth paste.

Make the soup

  1. In a soup kettle, heat the tomatoes with 1 quart of cold water gradually.

  2. Once hot, add another quart of cold water and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the rice, pepper, and salt, and boil until the rice is tender but not broken.

  4. Stir in the butter and flour paste, baking soda, and enough milk to thicken the soup.

  5. Boil for a few moments to cook the flour thoroughly, then serve immediately.

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.

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 + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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, acidity and flavour of the soup.
Rice
Softens as it simmers, adding body and thickening the soup slightly.
Butter and flour
Form a roux-style paste that thickens the soup as it is stirred in.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness and helps thicken the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity, mellowing the flavour and softening the tomatoes.

The step that matters

Boil for a few moments after adding the flour paste. Flour must be boiled to fully cook its starch; otherwise the soup can taste raw and pasty. Stirring the paste in smoothly first prevents lumps.

Swap the tomato

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, flour, pepper, milk. 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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