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Soup

Tomato Bisque

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Tomato Bisque

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Make the milk base

  1. Scald the milk with the onion and bread crumbs.

  2. Press the milk mixture through a sieve.

Make the tomato base

  1. Cook the tomatoes with sugar for 15 minutes.

  2. Add baking soda to the tomatoes.

  3. Press the tomato mixture through a sieve.

Combine and serve

  1. Reheat the milk to boiling.

  2. Add the tomatoes, butter, and seasonings to the milk.

  3. Serve immediately with croutons or crisp crackers.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

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 body and flavor of the soup.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that gives the bisque its smooth body.
Stale bread crumbs
Thicken the milk slightly and add body to the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralizes the tomatoes' acidity, mellowing their sharpness and softening flavor.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with sweetness.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Add baking soda to the tomatoes. Baking soda reacts with acid and releases carbon dioxide, so adding too much can cause foaming and a soapy, off flavor. Measure it carefully, since the amount is small.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, clove, bread, milk, pepper, 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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