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Cream of Tomato Soup

A tomato soup thickened with butter and flour, finished with sweet cream.

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: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,377 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine the tomatoes, water, and sliced onion.

  2. Simmer for 20 minutes, then strain the mixture.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and flour.

  2. Stir the butter‑flour mixture into the strained soup, adding it slowly while stirring constantly.

  3. Season with sugar, salt, pepper, and celery salt.

  4. Just before serving, stir in the sweet cream.

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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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, acidity, and flavour of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it is stirred in with the butter.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flour into the soup smoothly.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture when stirred in at the end.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and depth to the tomato base.

The step that matters

Adding the butter‑flour mixture. Flour clumps if dumped in at once. Adding it slowly while stirring constantly spreads it evenly so the soup thickens smoothly rather than lumping.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, flour, sugar, pepper, celery, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, flour, sugar, pepper, celery, cream. 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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