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Soup

Tomato Soup Without Meat

A smooth tomato soup made with stewed tomatoes, water, baking soda, milk, salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Tomato Soup Without Meat

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Tomato Soup Without Meat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Heat the stewed tomatoes and boiling water thoroughly.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve or fine strainer until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the baking soda and sweet milk.

  2. Season with salt, pepper, and butter.

  3. Stir well and 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.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,226 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,918 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Stewed tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and tomato flavor of the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some of the tomato acidity, which helps keep the milk from curdling.
Sweet milk
Adds creaminess and a rounder, milder body to the acidic tomato base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Boiling water
Thins the tomatoes to a soup consistency.

The step that matters

Stirring in the baking soda and sweet milk. Tomatoes are acidic, and acid can make milk curdle when the two are combined. Baking soda neutralizes some of that acidity, so the milk is more likely to stay smooth. Serving right away also helps keep the soup from separating.

“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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