Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cream of Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the tomato stock
Cook the canned tomatoes until soft.
Press the tomatoes through a strainer.
Add baking soda to the tomato stock (there should be about 4 cups).
Make the soup
In a saucepan, make a sauce with the tomato stock, butter, flour, and seasonings.
Add the milk and heat until hot, then serve.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 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
- Canned tomatoes
- Provide the main flavour, acidity and liquid base of the soup once pressed.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as its starch swells in the hot tomato stock.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the sauce a smoother mouthfeel.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises some of the tomato acidity, making the milk less likely to curdle.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and a mellow dairy flavour, turning the tomato base into a cream soup.
The step that matters
Adding the milk to the tomato base. Tomatoes are acidic, and when heated with acid, milk proteins can clump and curdle. The baking soda, added earlier, reduces that acidity so the milk stays smooth.
“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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