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Tomato Bisque

A tomato bisque made with tomatoes, water, flour, cream, sweet milk, and baking soda.

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

Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Combine 1 pint of water and 1 can of tomatoes in a pot; cook for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  3. Add a pinch of baking soda to the strained tomatoes.

Make the milk mixture

  1. In a bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of flour with ½ cup of cream.

  2. Add 1½ cups of sweet milk to the flour and cream mixture.

  3. Boil the tomatoes and the milk mixture separately.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the boiled tomatoes and milk mixture, and cook for 10 minutes.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they 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

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the soup and supply its tomato flavour and acidity.
Flour
Thickens the mixture with cream and milk, giving the bisque a smoother body.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer, silkier texture and mellows the tomato acidity.
Sweet milk
Adds liquid and creaminess, softening the tomato flavour into a smooth soup.
Baking soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity, making the soup taste less sharp.

The step that matters

Combine the boiled tomatoes and milk mixture. Adding acidic tomatoes to hot milk can curdle it. Keeping both sides hot and combining them gently, then cooking briefly, helps keep the bisque smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, milk):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, milk. 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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