Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,173 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and cook
Slice the tomatoes.
Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry it in the butter with the onion, carrot, herbs, and celery.
Add the tomatoes and stock, and cook gently for one hour.
Strain and thicken
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve and return it to the saucepan.
When it boils, stir in the tapioca and cook until clear.
Season and serve
Season to taste and serve.
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.
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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, flavour and colour of the soup.
- Bacon
- Adds savoury, smoky fat that enriches the flavour of the base.
- Butter
- Carries the aromatics and adds rich fat for flavour.
- Crushed tapioca
- Thickens the soup as it boils, giving it a smoother body.
The step that matters
Stirring in the tapioca. Tapioca thickens only when it boils, and it must be stirred in while the soup is boiling so it disperses evenly without lumps. Cooking until it turns clear shows the starch has fully gelatinised and thickened the soup.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, carrot, celery):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Parsnipbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, carrot, celery. 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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