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Tomato Stock Soup

A tomato soup made with stock, canned tomatoes, ham, green pepper, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Stock Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the ham and green pepper in butter for 5 minutes until lightly browned.

  2. Add the soup stock, canned tomatoes, and sugar; simmer for 1½ hours.

  3. Strain the soup and serve.

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.

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

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

  2. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that cooks the ham and green pepper and adds richness to the soup.
Canned tomatoes
Main body of the soup, supplying acidity, flavor and liquid.
Flavored soup stock
Liquid base that carries the flavor of the soup.
Lean raw ham
Browned in butter to add savory, meaty flavor to the base.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Simmer for 1½ hours. A long, gentle simmer lets the tomato flavor concentrate and mellow. Too high a heat can scorch the bottom of the pot and make the soup taste burnt.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, ham, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, ham, 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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