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Tomato Soup

A tomato soup with carrots, onions, and croutons.

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

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Melt the butter in a deep stewpan and add the sliced tomatoes.

  2. Cook gently for at least 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the cooked tomatoes through a sieve to remove skins and seeds, then return the pulp to the stewpan.

Finish the soup

  1. In a separate pan, frizzle the carrot rounds and sliced onion until tender.

  2. Add boiling water to achieve the desired soup consistency.

  3. Mix the potato flour with a little cold water and stir it into the soup.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste.

  5. Bring the soup to a boil.

  6. Stir in the cooked carrots and onion.

  7. Simmer gently or serve immediately.

Serve

  1. Place fried croutons at the bottom of the serving tureen before adding the soup.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 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
Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the soup once cooked down and strained.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as the tomatoes cook in it.
Potato flour
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it a smoother body.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and body once softened in the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the potato flour mixture. Potato flour must be whisked smooth in cold water before it goes into hot soup, otherwise it clumps. It thickens as the soup heats, so it should be stirred in well and the soup brought to a boil to set its texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, onion, potato, flour, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, onion, potato, flour, 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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