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Tomato Soup

A hearty soup made with tomatoes, soup bone, onion, cucumber, corn, and seasonings, thickened with corn starch.

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

Why it works: Tomato and cucumber are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,405 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the soup

  1. Combine tomatoes, soup bone, onion, cucumber, grated corn, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper in a large pot.

  2. Boil for 4 hours.

Thicken and serve

  1. Dissolve corn starch in cold water and add to the pot.

  2. Strain the soup 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. Tomato + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,405 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + cucumbertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,050 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the main body of the soup and give it its bright, acidic flavor.
Soup bone
Releases gelatin and flavor into the broth during long simmering, adding body.
Corn
Adds natural sweetness and body to the soup.
Corn starch
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the soup a smoother texture.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and depth to the base of the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the corn starch slurry. Cornstarch must be fully dissolved in cold water before it goes into the pot; added as dry lumps or to a cold mixture, it clumps and thickens unevenly. Starch thickens only when the liquid is hot enough for its granules to swell.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, cucumber, corn, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Eggplantfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, cucumber, corn, pepper. 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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