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Soup

Tomato Soup

A soup of tomatoes thickened with flour, milk and tapioca, made with a fish stock base.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,400 recipes mention both. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fish stock

  1. Chop the fish bones and trimmings, and place them in a stewpan with about 3 pints of water.

  2. Add the peeled onion stuck with cloves, mace, and bouquet garni.

  3. Bring to a boil, skim, reduce heat, and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Slice the tomatoes and melt the butter in another stewpan.

  2. Sauté the tomatoes in the butter until softened.

  3. Strain the fish stock into the tomatoes.

Make the soup

  1. Mix the flour with the milk and add to the soup, stirring until it begins to boil.

  2. Skim, reduce heat, and cook slowly for another 30 minutes.

  3. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  4. Rub the soup through a fine sieve, bring to a boil again, and stir in the tapioca.

  5. Reduce heat and let simmer for another 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. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,488 recipes

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

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, softened in butter before the stock is added.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it heats with the milk, giving it a smooth body.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the tomato and fish flavours.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour as the tomatoes soften.
Tapioca
Thickens the soup further when stirred in and simmered at the end.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and milk into the soup. Flour clumps if added without being mixed smoothly with the milk first. Stirring while the soup heats keeps it smooth and lets the starch thicken evenly.

Flavor stand-ins for the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, fish, flour, butter, milk, onion, clove):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, fish, flour, butter, milk, onion, clove. 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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