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
Skim and strain the beef stock.
Pass the tomatoes through a fine sieve and add to the stock.
Make a paste with butter and flour.
Simmer and season
When the stock begins to boil, stir in the paste, ensuring no lumps.
Boil for 20 minutes, seasoning with salt and pepper 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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Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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
- Beef stock
- Forms the savoury liquid base of the soup.
- Fresh tomatoes
- Provide the main tomato flavour, body and gentle acidity.
- Butter and flour paste
- Thickens the soup as the starch swells in the hot liquid.
The step that matters
Stirring the butter and flour paste into the boiling stock. Flour clumps if it hits hot liquid in large lumps, because the outer starch gels before the inside can disperse. Stir steadily as the paste goes in so it blends smoothly and thickens evenly.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, flour, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Chivefits better
- Leekfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, 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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