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Extra Pine Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with tomatoes, milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Extra Pine Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Strain the tomatoes and heat them in a pot.

  2. Add the baking soda to the heated tomatoes.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate pot, heat the milk with the butter, salt, and celery salt.

  2. Combine the hot milk mixture with the tomatoes while still hot.

Serve

  1. Serve with buttered cubes of bread.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Milk + celerytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the soup's body and provide its bright, acidic tomato flavor.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a smooth, mellow body that softens the tomato's sharpness.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some of the tomatoes' acidity, which helps keep the milk from curdling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Combining the hot milk mixture with the tomatoes. Tomatoes are acidic, and acid can cause milk proteins to clump and curdle, especially when both are hot. The baking soda added earlier raises the tomatoes' pH, which reduces this risk. Keeping the soup smooth depends on that neutralizing step having been done first.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, milk, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, milk, butter. 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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