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 Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the tomato base
Stew tomatoes until very soft and strain through a fine sieve.
Pour strained tomatoes into a granite saucepan and add soda.
When foaming stops, add butter gradually, then stir in salt, pepper, and cayenne.
Make the milk thickener
In a double boiler, heat milk and stir in cornstarch mixed with a little cold milk until smooth.
Scald the milk for about 10 minutes to cook the starch, then pour it into the tomato mixture.
Finish and serve
Beat well and reheat in a chafing dish before serving.
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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Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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 bisque once stewed and strained.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy liquid base that gives the bisque its smooth body.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the milk when cooked, giving the bisque its body and keeping it from separating.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes some tomato acidity, mellowing the sharpness and softening the flavor.
The step that matters
Scald the milk with cornstarch before combining. Cornstarch must be heated fully to swell and thicken; undercooked starch leaves a raw, floury taste and thin texture. Adding the milk to the acidic tomatoes after thickening also helps prevent curdling.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, 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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