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Cream Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with fresh tomatoes, rice, and a creamy base of butter, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Cream 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 ↓

Cream Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Peel and slice the fresh tomatoes.

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

  3. Heat gradually, then add an additional quart of cold water.

  4. Once boiling, add the rice, salt, and pepper to taste.

  5. Boil until the rice is tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the flour, butter, baking soda, and milk.

  2. Boil for a few minutes and 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. 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

Fresh tomatoes
Provide the main body and tomato flavor of the soup.
Rice
Softens as it cooks and adds body to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the soup becomes smooth and coats the spoon.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mellow, rounded flavor to the tomatoes.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some of the tomatoes' acidity, softening their sharpness.

The step that matters

Stirring in the milk with the baking soda. Milk can curdle when it meets hot, acidic tomato liquid. Baking soda raises the pH and helps prevent this, so it should be stirred in well before the milk is added. Keep the final boil brief so the soup stays smooth.

Swap the tomato

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

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

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