Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Tomato Bisque
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomato
Strain 1 pint of tomato liquid.
Heat the strained tomato liquid in a porcelain kettle.
Add ½ teaspoon of baking soda to the heated tomato liquid and stir thoroughly.
Strain the tomato mixture through a fine sieve.
Make the milk base
Heat 1 generous pint of fresh milk in a double boiler until it boils.
Blend 2 tablespoons of flour with ⅓ cup of milk.
Add the flour mixture to the boiling milk.
Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes.
Add a walnut-sized piece of butter to the boiling milk mixture.
Combine and serve
Pour the milk mixture into the tomato and remove from heat immediately.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Serve immediately.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,039 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Tomato liquid
- Forms the main body and tomato flavour of the bisque.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and a smooth, rich texture to the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk so the bisque becomes smooth and body-rich.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises some of the tomato's acidity, softening its sharpness.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richer flavour and a silkier mouthfeel.
The step that matters
Pour the milk mixture into the tomato and remove from heat immediately. Hot tomato acid can curdle milk proteins if the mixture is overheated or held at a boil. Combining at the right moment and removing heat quickly keeps the bisque smooth.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, walnut, butter, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Shallotfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, walnut, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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