Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,377 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Wash the tomatoes and cut them into pieces.
Add the washed and cut onions and celery.
Add the finely chopped red pepper, including the seeds.
Boil until the tomatoes are very soft.
Press the tomatoes through a sieve.
Make the soup
Melt the butter in a pot.
Add the flour, brown sugar, salt, and baking soda.
Blend the mixture.
Slowly add the strained tomato.
Heat to boiling.
Cook until thickened.
Seal in sterile jars.
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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Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned 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
- Ripe tomatoes
- Provide the main body and flavor of the soup once boiled and sieved.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the base mixture.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it cooks with the tomato liquid.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes some tomato acidity, altering flavor and color.
The step that matters
Slowly add the strained tomato. Adding the liquid gradually to the butter and flour mixture lets the starch disperse evenly, so the soup thickens smoothly without lumps.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, celery, pepper, butter, flour, sugar):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Carrotbetter flavor fit
- Okrabetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, celery, pepper, butter, flour, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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