Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cover the tomatoes with water in a pot and boil for one hour.
Strain the mixture through a coarse sieve back into the pot.
Bring the strained tomato liquid to a boil.
Mix the flour with cold water to form a smooth batter and stir it into the boiling tomato liquid.
Let it boil for five minutes, then season to taste.
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.
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,065 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main flavour and body of the soup once cooked and strained.
- Fine flour
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells when heated in the boiling tomato.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour batter into the boiling liquid. Flour mixed with cold water and added to hot liquid can clump if it is not smooth first. Mixing it into a smooth batter before adding it, and stirring while it goes in, helps it disperse and thicken evenly.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Okrafits better
- Spinachfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against 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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