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Tomato Bisque

A creamy tomato bisque enriched with clams, butter, and onions.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Tomato Bisque

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the clam stock

  1. Pour cold water over clams and drain the clams.

  2. Chop the hard parts of the clams finely and add them to the water.

  3. Heat the mixture slowly to boiling point and cook it for 20 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture.

Make the bisque

  1. In a pot, cook butter with onion for 5 minutes.

  2. Remove the onion from the pot.

  3. Add flour to the pot and gradually stir in the clam water.

  4. Add cream and the soft parts of the clams.

  5. Once boiling, add the strained tomatoes mixed with baking soda.

  6. Season with salt and cayenne.

  7. Serve immediately.

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.

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

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they 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

Clams
Provide the main seafood flavour and body of the bisque.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the butter and clam liquid into a smooth base.
Stewed and strained tomatoes
Supply acidity, colour and body to the bisque.
Baking soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity, which can curdle the cream.
Butter
Carries flavour from the onion and adds richness.

The step that matters

Adding the tomatoes to the cream. Tomatoes are acidic and can curdle cream when heated. Baking soda is mixed in first to neutralise some acid, and the mixture should be added once the soup is boiling, not left to simmer long after.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, clam, butter, flour, onion):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, clam, butter, flour, onion. 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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