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Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with tomatoes, onion, fat, parsley, seasonings, rice, and a butter‑flour roux.

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

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,122 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a stewpan, combine the onion and dripping; simmer until reddish brown.

  2. Add the tomatoes and stir until very hot.

  3. Pour in the boiling water and add the parsley; stew for 30 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the mixture, rubbing the tomatoes through a sieve into the hot liquid.

  2. Return the liquid to the stewpan, season with pepper, salt, and sugar.

  3. Bring to a boil again, then add the floured butter.

  4. After a minute, stir in the rice and simmer for 10 minutes before serving.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,065 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together5,398 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Red tomatoes
Provide the main body, flavour and colour of the soup once strained.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma when simmered in fat until browned.
Dripping
Carries flavour and helps the onion brown through gentle frying.
Boiled rice
Thickens the soup slightly and adds body as it simmers.
Butter rolled in flour
Thickens the liquid when whisked in at a boil, giving a smoother body.

The step that matters

Rubbing the tomatoes through the sieve. Pressing the cooked tomato pulp through a sieve separates the pulp from seeds and skins and gives the soup a smooth texture. Skipping this step leaves a coarse, uneven soup.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, parsley, pepper, sugar, rice, butter, flour):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Okrabetter flavor fit
  3. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, pepper, sugar, rice, butter, flour. 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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