Why it works: Milk and butter 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 white sauce
Scald the milk in a double boiler.
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Stir in the flour, salt, and pepper until smooth.
Add the mixture to the hot milk and cook for 10 minutes, stirring until smooth.
Prepare the tomatoes
Cook the tomatoes until soft, then mash through a strainer and add the baking soda.
Combine and serve
Combine the tomato mixture with the milk just before serving to prevent curdling.
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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Milk + buttertop 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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 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).
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Milk + tomatotop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Butter and flour 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
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base of the soup, giving it body and a smooth, rich texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps form the smooth base of the white sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk and butter into a white sauce, giving the soup its body.
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main flavor and color, with acidity that contrasts the cream.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes some of the tomato acidity, reducing sharpness and helping prevent curdling.
The step that matters
Combine the tomato mixture with the milk just before serving. Tomatoes are acidic, and acid can curdle hot milk. Adding the tomatoes at the last moment, with the baking soda already neutralizing some acid, helps keep the soup smooth rather than separated.
“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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