Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,065 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Rice and Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Boil the rice in 2 quarts of water until tender.
Season with salt and add a generous lump of butter.
Move the kettle to the side of the fire.
Add the cooked and strained tomatoes, sweetened with a pinch of baking soda.
Season with salt, pepper, and sugar.
Serve
Pour the soup over toasted whole wheat bread.
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.
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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Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,065 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Rice + wheattop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together423 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + wheattop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together468 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Cooks down into starch that thickens the soup and gives it body.
- Cooked and strained tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the soup.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with a touch of sweetness.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises some tomato acidity, mellowing the sharpness of the soup.
The step that matters
Add the baking soda to the tomatoes. Baking soda reacts with acid and releases carbon dioxide, so adding too much can make the soup taste soapy or bitter. Use only a pinch and stir it in well with the tomatoes.
“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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