Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Excellent Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Place the tomatoes in a saucepan and add the baking soda, sugar, butter, water, and milk.
Mix the flour with a portion of the tomatoes and add it to the soup while boiling.
Once the tomatoes are cooked, strain the mixture and add the whipped cream.
Serve
Serve with rolled crackers.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Provide the main body and flavor of the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it boils, giving it a smoother body.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the tomato flavor.
- Whipped cream
- Adds richness and a silky finish when stirred in at the end.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes some tomato acidity, mellowing the flavor.
The step that matters
Adding the flour mixture to the boiling soup. Flour thickens only when heated and stirred in well. Mixing it with tomatoes first helps it disperse evenly and prevents lumps, so the soup turns smooth rather than pasty.
“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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