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Cream of Tomato Soup

A creamy tomato soup made with tomatoes, onion, garlic, parsley, butter, flour, milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cream of Tomato Soup

Why it works: Clove and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,768 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Cream of Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Cook the tomatoes, clove, onion, salt, peppercorns, and parsley together for 20 minutes.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Return the strained mixture to the fire.

  4. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and mix in the flour; cook for 3 minutes without coloring.

  2. Gradually stir in the hot milk until blended and smooth; simmer for 5 minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. Remove both saucepans from the heat.

  2. Add the baking soda to the tomatoes and stir until it effervesces.

  3. Wait 2 minutes.

  4. Combine the tomatoes with the sauce.

  5. Serve immediately.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main flavor and body of the soup, with acidity and color.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that gives the soup body.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the sauce and softens the tomato's acidity.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some tomato acidity, making the soup smoother and less sharp.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the tomatoes. Baking soda reacts with acid and releases gas, so it foams up quickly. Adding it too early or in too large an amount can cause excess foaming and an soapy or off taste. Add it slowly and stir until it stops fizzing before combining with the sauce.

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

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

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Capersbetter flavor fit
  3. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, onion, parsley, butter, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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