Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the sliced onion in the butter.
Add the sliced tomatoes, boiling water, cloves, salt, pepper, and sugar.
Cook well and strain the mixture.
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.
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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,474 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Onion
- Browning the onion builds sweet, savory depth as the base flavor of the soup.
- Butter
- Fat that carries flavor and helps the onion brown in the pan.
- Tomatoes
- Supply the main body, acidity and fresh tomato flavor of the soup.
- Boiling water
- Liquid that cooks the tomatoes and draws out their flavor.
- Cloves
- Add warm, aromatic spice notes to the soup.
The step that matters
Cook well and strain the mixture. Tomatoes must be cooked until fully soft so they break down and pass through the strainer smoothly. Undercooked tomatoes stay fibrous and leave a sharp, raw taste.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tomato, clove, pepper, sugar):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Eggplantfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, clove, pepper, sugar. 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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