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Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with sliced tomatoes, water, rice, milk, butter, flour, baking soda, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the sliced tomatoes and cold water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add a little rice and a pinch of baking soda.

  4. Stir in the milk, butter, and flour.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  6. Boil for 10 minutes, 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.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 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 flavor of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the tomato's sharp acidity.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for a smoother mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the soup slightly, giving it body.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some tomato acidity, reducing sharpness and preventing curdling.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to the hot tomato mixture. Tomato acid can make milk curdle when the two are heated together, especially at a full boil. Baking soda reduces acidity, and the record's order adds milk after the boiling step, so the soup should be kept hot but not boiling once the milk goes in.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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