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Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with tomatoes, ham or bacon, tapioca, stock, butter, salt, cayenne pepper, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and add the tomatoes.

  2. Cook the tomatoes until tender, then press them through a sieve.

Thicken the stock

  1. In a pot, bring the weak stock to a boil.

  2. Add the crushed tapioca and boil for 20 minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the tomato juice with the stock and bring to a boil.

  2. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  3. If desired, stir in a little cream after boiling.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup once cooked and sieved.
Tapioca
Thickens the stock as it boils, giving the soup body.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the tomatoes as they cook.
Weak stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the tomato flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling the tapioca. Tapioca thickens only when it boils long enough for its starch to swell and gelatinise. Boiling it for the full time ensures the soup reaches the intended thickness and a smooth texture.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, pepper, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Onionfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, pepper, cream. 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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