Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Cream of Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the base
In a double boiler, heat the milk.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour and butter together.
Once the milk is boiling, add the flour and butter mixture.
Make the tomato mixture
Cook the tomatoes for twenty minutes, then strain them.
Add the baking soda, sugar, salt, and pepper to the strained tomatoes.
Combine and serve
Combine the tomato mixture with the milk and serve immediately.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Milk
- Forms the creamy liquid base of the soup, giving body and richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the flour thicken the milk smoothly.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, body-rich base when cooked with butter.
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main tomato flavor and acidity of the soup.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes some tomato acidity, reducing sharpness and helping prevent curdling.
The step that matters
Combining the tomato mixture with the milk. Tomato acid can cause hot milk to curdle or separate. Keeping the milk hot but not boiling, and adding the tomatoes to it while mixing, helps keep the soup smooth. Serve right after combining, as the soup can separate on standing.
“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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