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Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with tomatoes, stock or water, butter, bacon, onion, carrot, celery, herbs, and tapioca.

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

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

  1. Slice the tomatoes and cut the bacon into small pieces.

  2. Fry the bacon in butter with the onion, carrot, celery, and herbs until softened.

Make the soup

  1. Add the tomatoes and stock (or water) to the pan and cook gently for one hour.

  2. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and return it to the saucepan.

  3. Bring to a boil, then stir in the tapioca and cook until clear.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, then serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned 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 and flavour of the soup as they break down during gentle cooking.
Tapioca
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it a smooth, clear body.
Butter
Carries the flavour of the bacon and vegetables and adds richness when frying.
Bacon
Adds savoury, smoky depth to the base as it fries with the vegetables.
Onion
Softens and sweetens during frying, building the aromatic base of the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring in the tapioca and cooking until clear. Tapioca thickens only when it is heated enough to swell and gelatinise. Once boiling, it needs time to become clear, and stirring prevents lumps from forming at the bottom of the pan.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, butter, carrot, celery, pepper):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, carrot, celery, pepper. 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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