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Bean and Tomato Soup

A tomato and bean soup with onions, butter, flour, milk, and mashed potatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bean and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Boil the canned tomatoes and pass them through a sieve.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the butter until hot.

  3. Add the sliced onions and cook until red.

  4. Stir in the flour and cook until red, watching to prevent burning.

  5. Pour in the boiling water and add pepper and salt; mix well and boil for 1 minute.

  6. Transfer to a soup kettle and keep warm.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the boiling milk and mashed potatoes, mixing until smooth.

  2. Taste and adjust seasoning with pepper and salt as needed.

  3. Let it simmer for a few moments.

Serve

  1. Place toasted bread pieces in a tureen.

  2. Pour the soup over the bread pieces.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Carries the onions and flour, adding richness and flavor to the soup base.
Flour
Thickens the soup base, giving it body as it cooks with the butter.
Onions
Soften and brown in the butter, adding sweetness and savory depth.
Canned tomatoes
Provide acidity and body once boiled and sieved into a smooth pulp.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the soup's flavor.
Potatoes
Mashed into the soup, they add body and a smooth, thick texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour into the onions. Flour must be stirred and cooked until it loses its raw taste and turns golden, while being watched closely so it does not scorch. Undercooked flour tastes pasty, and burnt flour turns bitter.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, flour, pepper, milk, potato):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, flour, pepper, milk, potato. 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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