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 ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Pour boiling water over fresh tomatoes to loosen the skins.
After 1 minute, plunge tomatoes into cold water and remove the skins.
Slice the tomatoes for accurate measurement.
Make the soup
Cook the tomatoes and water slowly for 30 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve to remove seeds.
Return the strained soup to the heat and season with butter, salt, and pepper.
Thicken the soup with cornstarch mixed with some of the soup.
Add boiled rice, macaroni, or vermicelli if desired.
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 + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,065 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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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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Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 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, flavor and pulp of the soup.
- Water
- Thins the tomatoes and sets the volume of the soup as it cooks.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the soup as it is heated with liquid.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Thicken the soup with cornstarch mixed with some of the soup. Cornstarch must be blended with cool liquid first so it disperses evenly; added dry or to hot soup it forms lumps. Starch thickens only when heated, so the soup should be kept hot while it sets.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, rice):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, rice. 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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