Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,923 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
In a flat stew pan, heat the butter or fat.
Add sliced onions and fry until soft.
Stir in the tomatoes and let stew for 20 minutes.
Rub the mixture through a sieve to remove seeds and pulp.
Finish the soup
Combine the pulp with the stock in a pot and bring to a boil.
Soak the tapioca in water for an hour, then add to the boiling soup.
Stir and boil for 10 minutes, seasoning with pepper and salt.
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 + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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, flavour and colour of the soup once stewed and sieved.
- Onions
- Softened by frying, they add sweetness and savoury depth to the base.
- Tapioca
- Soaked and boiled, it thickens the soup as its starch swells with heat.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the other flavours.
The step that matters
Adding the tapioca to the boiling soup. Tapioca must be soaked first and then added to boiling liquid so its starch swells evenly and thickens the soup. Added to cold soup or without soaking, it can clump and stay grainy.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tomato, pepper):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Carrotabout as good a flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, pepper. 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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