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Tomato Bisque

A creamy tomato soup made with cooked 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: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Cook the tomatoes with sugar for 15 minutes.

  2. Add baking soda to the tomatoes.

  3. Press the 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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the bisque.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a smooth, rich texture to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Baking soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity and helps keep the milk from curdling.
Sugar
Softens the sharpness of the tomatoes, adding balance and sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the tomatoes to the milk. Acidic tomatoes can curdle hot milk. Baking soda is added to the tomatoes first to reduce acidity, and the milk should be reheated before combining so the mixture stays smooth.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, milk, butter, sugar, pepper, clove, parsley. 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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