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 ↓
Delicious Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Cook the peeled tomatoes with baking soda until thoroughly cooked.
Pour in the boiling milk while stirring well.
Let the mixture boil together for about 15 minutes.
Season and serve
Season with red pepper, coarse sea salt, and butter.
Just before serving, thicken the soup with a little rolled crackers.
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.
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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Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned 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
- Peeled tomatoes
- Form the base of the soup and provide its main flavor and acidity.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes some of the tomato's acidity, keeping the milk from curdling.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and body, turning the tomato base into a smooth soup.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
- Rolled crackers
- Absorb liquid and thicken the soup as they soften.
The step that matters
Pouring the boiling milk into the tomatoes. Tomatoes are acidic, and when hot milk meets acid it can curdle. Adding the baking soda first and stirring the milk in steadily 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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