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 Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Cook the tinned tomatoes and chopped onion in a pot for 20 minutes, then rub through a sieve.
Keep the tomato mixture warm on the stove.
Make the milk base
In a double boiler, boil the milk until heated.
Cream together the butter and flour.
Add the butter-flour mixture to the heated milk.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Combine and finish
Dissolve the baking soda in a little water.
Add the dissolved baking soda to the tomato mixture.
Combine the tomato mixture with the milk.
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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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Tinned tomatoes
- Provide the main body, moisture and tangy acidity of the bisque.
- Milk
- Supplies the creamy liquid base that gives the bisque its smooth, rich texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and smoothness into the base.
- Flour
- Thickens the base when cooked with butter, giving the bisque body.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises some of the tomatoes' acidity, mellowing the flavour and reducing curdling.
- Onion
- Adds savoury aroma and subtle sweetness as it cooks down with the tomatoes.
The step that matters
Combine the tomato mixture with the milk.. Hot acidic tomatoes can cause milk proteins to clump and curdle. Adding the tomato gradually and keeping the heat gentle, with the baking soda already neutralising acid, helps keep the bisque smooth.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, milk, butter, flour, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Okrafits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, milk, butter, flour, 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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