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 hot red pepper and its seeds.
Boil until the tomatoes are very soft, then press through a sieve.
Make the soup
Melt the butter in a pot, then add the flour, brown sugar, salt, and baking soda.
Blend well, then slowly add the strained tomato mixture.
Heat to boiling and cook until thickened.
Seal
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).
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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).
-
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
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat that carries flavour in the soup.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and a caramel note that balances the tomato's acidity.
- Baking soda
- Neutralises some of the tomato acidity, softening the flavour.
- Ripe tomatoes
- Form the main body and flavour of the soup once boiled and sieved.
- Onions
- Add savoury sweetness and aromatic depth to the base.
The step that matters
Adding the strained tomato mixture to the roux. Adding liquid slowly while blending keeps the flour smooth and lump-free. Adding it all at once can leave lumps that are hard to remove, and the soup may not thicken evenly.
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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