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Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with fish stock, butter, milk, flour, and tapioca.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fish stock

  1. Chop the fish bones and trimmings and place them in a stewpan with 3 pints of water.

  2. Add the peeled onion, the cloves, the mace and the bouquet garni.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim the surface.

  4. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Make the soup

  1. Slice the tomatoes.

  2. Melt the butter in a separate stewpan, increase the heat and sauté the tomatoes in the butter.

  3. Strain the fish stock into the tomatoes.

  4. Mix the milk with the flour and add the mixture to the soup.

  5. Stir until it begins to boil, then skim the soup.

  6. Cook slowly for half an hour.

  7. Season with pepper and salt.

  8. Rub the soup through a fine sieve.

  9. Bring to a boil again and stir in the tapioca.

  10. Simmer for another 10 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. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main flavour, body and acidity of the soup.
Butter
Carries the flavour of the tomatoes and adds richness to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup with milk to give it body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the tomato flavour.
Crushed tapioca
Thickens the soup further as it heats.
Fish bones and trimmings
Build the savoury stock that forms the base of the soup.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk and flour mixture until it boils. Flour thickens only when heated, and it can clump if added without mixing it smoothly with the milk first. Stirring while the soup comes to a boil keeps it smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, fish, flour, butter, milk, onion, clove):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, fish, flour, butter, milk, onion, clove. 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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