Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Tomato Bisque
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Cook the tomatoes
In a pot, stew the tomatoes.
Thicken the milk
Reserve ½ cup of milk to mix with the flour.
In a double boiler, scald the remaining milk.
Mix the flour smoothly in the reserved cold milk.
Stir the flour mixture into the boiling milk and cook for 10 minutes.
Strain and combine
Add the baking soda to the boiling tomatoes and stir well.
Rub the tomato mixture through a wire sifter.
Combine the strained tomatoes with the milky mixture, adding salt, pepper, and butter.
Finish
If desired, add a little sugar for sweetness.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour and butter 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
- Form the main body and tangy flavor of the soup.
- Milk
- Provides the creamy liquid base and mellows the tomato's sharpness.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk as its starch swells when heated, giving body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes some of the tomato's acid, lowering the risk of curdling the milk.
The step that matters
Combining the hot tomatoes with the milk. Tomatoes are acidic, and acid can curdle hot milk. Neutralizing with baking soda first and keeping the mixture smooth and well stirred helps the bisque stay silky rather than grainy or separated.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, butter, pepper, sugar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Sweet potatofits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, butter, pepper, sugar. 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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