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Tomato Bisque

A tomato bisque made with tomatoes, water, onion, baking soda, milk, butter, and rice, served hot with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Tomato Bisque

Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Put the tomatoes, water, and onion in a pot and simmer slowly for 15 minutes.

  2. Press the mixture through a colander and return it to the pot.

  3. Add a pinch of baking soda.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat the milk to scalding point and pour it slowly into the tomato mixture while stirring briskly.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, then add the butter and rice.

  3. Let it simmer for 3-4 minutes and serve in a hot tureen, adding croutons just before serving.

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. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and tangy flavour of the bisque.
Milk
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralises some of the tomato's acidity, mellowing the flavour and colour.
Well-boiled rice
Thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, full body when simmered.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder mouthfeel and richer flavour.

The step that matters

Pour the hot milk slowly while stirring briskly. Acidic tomatoes can cause milk to curdle when they meet. Heating the milk, adding it slowly, and stirring constantly helps disperse it evenly so the bisque stays smooth.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, milk, pepper, butter, rice. 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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