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Tomato Bisque, with Ceabs

A tomato bisque enriched with crabs, milk, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Bisque, with Ceabs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Boil the tomatoes with onion, sugar, salt, pepper, and baking soda for about 45 minutes.

  2. Press the mixture through a sieve.

Thicken the milk

  1. In a separate pot, boil the milk and thicken it with butter and flour.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the crabs and parsley to the tomato mixture.

  2. Do not let the bisque boil after mixing.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the soup and provide its body, sweetness, and acidity.
Milk
Provides creaminess and a smooth, rich texture that balances the tomatoes.
Crabs
Supply the main flavor and tender, meaty pieces in the bisque.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk so the soup has a velvety body.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and helps the flour thicken the milk smoothly.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some of the tomatoes' acidity, making the base less sharp and helping prevent curdling.

The step that matters

Do not let the bisque boil after mixing. Tomatoes are acidic and milk is prone to curdling when heated with acid. Once combined, gentle heat keeps the bisque smooth, while boiling can cause the milk to separate and turn grainy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, milk, flour, butter, pepper, sugar. 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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