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Tomato Bouillon

A tomato-based broth seasoned with onion, bay leaves, cloves, celery seed, and egg whites, served with toasted bread cubes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a pot, combine the tomatoes and stock over medium heat.

  2. Add the onion, bay leaves, cloves, celery seed, and pepper.

  3. Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Clarify and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until slightly frothy, then add to the tomato mixture.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook rapidly for 5 minutes.

  3. Strain again through two layers of cheesecloth.

  4. Reheat, season with salt, and serve with toasted bread cubes.

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 + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 and tomato flavor of the broth.
Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping fine particles so the broth clears when strained.
Stock
Supplies the liquid base and savory depth for the broth.

The step that matters

Boiling the egg white mixture. Egg whites must be stirred in and brought to a boil so they coagulate and trap suspended solids. Boiling too gently leaves the broth cloudy, and the cheesecloth straining then cannot remove the particles.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, clove, celery, egg, pepper, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, clove, celery, egg, pepper, bread. 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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