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Soup

Cbeam of Tomato Soup

A thickened tomato soup made with milk, fat, flour, and tomato juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,923 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cbeam of Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the fat in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Gradually add the milk and onion juice, stirring constantly.

  4. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until thickened.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the heated tomato juice.

  2. Serve immediately while 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.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + tomatotop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,226 recipes

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

Milk and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 78,219 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy body as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and carries the thickened texture.
Tomato juice
Provides the tomato flavour and liquid that makes up the soup.
Fat
Coats the flour so it can be cooked smoothly into the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the milk to the roux. Adding the liquid gradually while stirring constantly keeps the flour dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Okrabetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, tomato, flour, pepper. 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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