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 Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Stew the tomatoes in the broth until broken into pieces.
Add the parsley, onion, and sugar; stew for 20 minutes.
Rub the mixture through a colander to remove solids.
Finish and serve
Season with salt and pepper, then thicken with browned flour mixed with butter.
Boil for 2 minutes and pour over fried bread in a serving dish.
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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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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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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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,398 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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 flavor of the soup once stewed and strained.
- Browned flour
- Thickens the strained soup so it has a smooth, fuller body.
- Butter
- Mixed with the browned flour to add richness and help it blend smoothly into the soup.
- Broth
- Forms the liquid base that the tomatoes stew in and carries the soup's savory flavor.
The step that matters
Thicken with browned flour and butter. Flour must be fully mixed with butter before it goes in, and the soup must then boil briefly. Otherwise the flour clumps and stays starchy rather than thickening the soup smoothly.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, parsley, onion, sugar, pepper, flour, butter):
- Carrotfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parsley, onion, sugar, pepper, flour, butter. 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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