Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,065 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Tomato Soup and Rice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Combine tomatoes, lemon juice, sugar, sour cream, and water in a pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Strain the mixture.
Make the rice
Combine rice, 1 pint of water, milk, and butter in another pot.
Boil the mixture until thick.
Serve
Pour the tomato soup over the rice.
Serve.
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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Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,065 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Rice + walnuttop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together430 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body and tomato flavor of the soup.
- Sour cream
- Adds richness and a mild tang to the soup.
- Rice
- Its starch thickens the milk mixture and gives the dish substance.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softness to the rice.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the tomato flavor.
The step that matters
Boil the rice mixture until thick. Milk and starch can scorch or stick to the bottom of the pot as the liquid reduces. Keeping the heat controlled and stirring helps the rice cook evenly and the mixture thicken without burning.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, cream, rice, milk, walnut, butter):
- Coconutbetter flavor fit
- Vanillabetter flavor fit
- Figbetter flavor fit
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, cream, rice, milk, walnut, butter. 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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