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 milk and roux
Scald the milk in a double boiler.
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the flour, salt, and pepper until smooth.
Add the mixture to the hot milk and cook for 10 minutes, stirring until smooth.
Prepare the tomatoes and serve
Cook the tomatoes until soft, then mash through a strainer and add the baking soda.
Combine the tomato mixture with the milk just before serving to prevent curdling.
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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Pepper + tomatotop 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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Milk + tomatotop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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 base of the soup, giving body and richness.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and with flour helps thicken the base.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, stable sauce.
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main tomato flavour, acidity and body once mashed.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises some tomato acidity, which mellows flavour and reduces curdling risk.
The step that matters
Combining the tomato mixture with the milk. Tomato acid can curdle hot milk proteins. Adding the tomatoes to the milk just before serving, rather than letting them sit together, helps keep the soup smooth.
“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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