Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 15,539 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Cream of Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the tomatoes
Combine the tin of tomatoes with the bay leaf, mace, and parsley in a pot.
Let them stew for 15 minutes.
Press the stewed tomatoes through a sieve.
Make the cream
Bring the milk to a boil in a double boiler.
Mix the flour with the olive oil.
Add the mixture to the boiling milk.
Stir constantly until thickened.
Combine and serve
Add the sugar and baking soda to the tomatoes.
Mix in the boiling milk and stir.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together15,539 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Parsley + olivetop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,649 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together5,398 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 78,219 recipes mention both: they likely 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
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body and tangy flavour of the soup.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base of the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, creamy texture.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises some tomato acidity so the milk is less likely to curdle.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with sweetness.
The step that matters
Adding the mixture to the boiling milk. Tomatoes are acidic and can curdle milk when they meet it, so the tomato and milk should be combined carefully and kept hot and smooth, with the baking soda added to the tomatoes first to reduce acidity.
Flavor stand-ins for the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, parsley, milk, flour, olive, sugar):
- Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
- Cardamombetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, milk, flour, olive, sugar. 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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