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Mock Bisque Soup

A tomato-based soup thickened with flour and milk, flavored with butter, salt, pepper, and served with croutons.

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

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Mock Bisque Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Put the tomatoes in a pot to stew.

  2. Add the baking soda to the tomatoes. Stir well.

  3. Strain to remove seeds.

Make the milk thickening

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler.

  2. Reserve ½ cup of the milk to mix with the flour.

  3. Mix the flour smoothly with the cold milk.

  4. Stir the mixture into the boiling milk.

  5. Cook for 10 minutes.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the strained tomatoes with the milk.

  2. Add butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Serve immediately.

  4. Garnish with croutons.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Canned tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup and adds richness and mild sweetness.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a smooth, body-rich base when cooked.
Baking soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity, reducing sharpness and helping keep the milk from curdling.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and rounder flavour.

The step that matters

Combine the tomatoes and milk. Tomato acid can curdle hot milk. Adding the baking soda to the tomatoes first and combining them carefully helps keep the soup smooth rather than grainy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

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