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Clear Tomato Soup. Consomme De Tomates.

A clear tomato soup made with stock, tomatoes, bacon rind, and seasonings, finished with egg whites and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Clear Tomato Soup. Consomme De Tomates.

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock base

  1. Combine the clear stock, tomatoes, sugar, bacon rind, carmine, tarragon vinegar, lemon juice, and Bovril in a stewpan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Simmer for one hour.

  4. Strain the mixture and remove the fat.

Clarify and finish

  1. To each quart of soup, add the whites and shells of four eggs, carmine, and ½ cup of white wine.

  2. Bring the soup to a boil.

  3. Simmer gently for fifteen minutes.

  4. Strain through a soup cloth dipped in hot water and wring out.

  5. Return the soup to a clean saucepan.

  6. Add 1 teaspoon of arrowroot mixed with cold water.

  7. Garnish with tomato custard cut into fancy shapes.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tarragon + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Tomato + tarragontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together391 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Tarragon + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,547 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. White wine + tarragontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together409 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites and shells
Bind and clarify the soup, collecting particles so the broth turns clear.
Tomatoes
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup.
Clear stock
Forms the liquid base that carries all the other flavours.
Arrowroot
Thickens the finished soup lightly with a glossy texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the soup during clarification.

The step that matters

Strain through a soup cloth dipped in hot water and wring out. Egg white and shell particles must be trapped fully for the soup to clear. A hot, wrung-out cloth lets the clear liquid pass through while holding back the fine solids, so the soup stays bright rather than cloudy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, white wine, tarragon, vinegar, lemon, beef):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, white wine, tarragon, vinegar, lemon, beef. 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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