Skip to main content
Main

Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with canned tomatoes, stock, water, butter, cream, flour, salt, and red pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Tomato Soup

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

Prepare

  1. Strain the can of tomatoes.

  2. Boil the strained tomatoes with the chicken or beef stock and water if needed.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the walnut-sized piece of butter.

  2. Slowly pour in the cream while boiling.

  3. Smoothly beat the flour into the cream before adding.

  4. Season with salt and a pinch of red pepper.

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.

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.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Tomato + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provides the main body and bright acidity of the soup.
Chicken or beef stock
Adds savory depth and the liquid that forms the soup base.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the finished soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture.
Flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Pouring in the cream while boiling. Cream can curdle when it meets a hot, boiling liquid, especially if poured quickly. Pouring slowly and first beating the flour into the cream helps it stay smooth and blended.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, walnut, butter, cream, flour, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, walnut, butter, cream, 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.

More tomato soup recipes

Cream 27Clear 14Creamed 10Creamy 8French 8with Rice 8 See all 632 →

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesChicken PanadaChicken Panada75 recipes