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White Soup

A tomato and onion soup thickened with tapioca and milk, seasoned with butter, pepper, and sea salt.

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

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the tomatoes and onions in 2 quarts of water until soft.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve and return the paste to the water.

Thicken and season

  1. Add the tapioca and boil for 15 minutes.

  2. Season with butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the milk and heat until hot, then serve.

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

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

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

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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, flavour and acidity of the soup base.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften in the water.
Tapioca
Thickens the soup as its starch swells and gelatinises during boiling.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mellow, rounded texture to the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Tomatoes are acidic, and hot acidic liquid can curdle milk proteins, especially when it boils. Add the milk to the soup and heat only until hot, not at a rolling boil, so it stays smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, milk, 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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