Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,451 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Slice the onion and add it to the melted butter, browning it slightly.
Add the stock and bring to a boil.
Stir in the cloves, salt, pepper, and sliced carrot.
Add the tomatoes, cut into thin slices.
Cover the saucepan and simmer gently for 1 hour.
Strain and serve
Strain the soup through a fine sieve or strainer and return it to the saucepan to warm.
Just before serving, stir in the cream.
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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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together21,601 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 flavour and body of the soup as they break down during simmering.
- Butter
- Adds richness and carries flavour while the onion browns gently.
- Onion
- Browning adds savoury depth that builds the base flavour of the soup.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base that the vegetables simmer in and extract flavour into.
- Cream
- Adds fat and smoothness to the finished soup, mellowing the tomato acidity.
The step that matters
Simmer gently for 1 hour. A gentle simmer lets the tomatoes and carrot soften and release flavour without scorching on the pan base. A hard boil can burn the bottom and make the soup taste harsh.
Flavor stand-ins for the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, pepper, butter, carrot, onion, cream):
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, butter, carrot, onion, cream. 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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