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Soup

Cream Tomato Soup

A tomato soup thickened with crushed crackers and cream, made with veal, bone, celery, and tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream Tomato Soup

Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the knuckle of veal, beef bone, and celery.

  2. Cover with water and boil slowly for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the broth and add the can of tomatoes.

  4. Cook for an additional 30 minutes and strain again.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the crushed crackers with the cream.

  2. Add some of the soup to the cream mixture and mix thoroughly.

  3. Pour the cream mixture back into the pot and boil gently for a few minutes before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  4. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Veal + tomatotop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together709 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

Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety body to the soup.
Crushed crackers
Thicken the cream mixture slightly and give the soup body.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and the characteristic tomato flavour and colour.
Knuckle of veal
Contributes gelatin and savoury depth to the broth.
Beef bone
Adds savoury flavour and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the soup to the cream mixture. Adding hot soup to cream all at once can cause it to curdle. Tempering with a little soup first gradually raises the cream's temperature, so it blends in smoothly when returned to the pot.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, celery, cream):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, celery, cream. 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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