Skip to main content
Main

Mock Bisque Soup

A tomato-based soup thickened with butter, cornstarch, and milk, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Mock Bisque Soup

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mock Bisque Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Stew the tomatoes until soft enough to strain easily.

  2. If the tomatoes are very acid, add the baking soda before straining.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the milk in a double boiler.

  2. In a small saucepan, cook 1 tablespoon of butter and cornstarch together, adding enough hot milk to make it pour easily.

  3. Stir the mixture carefully into the boiling milk and boil for ten minutes.

  4. Add the remaining butter in small pieces and stir until well mixed.

  5. Add the salt, pepper, and strained tomatoes.

  6. Serve very hot.

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

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

  2. Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

  4. Butter + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Tomato + white peppertop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together226 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl butyrate (fruity, apple).

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 flavour of the soup once stewed and strained.
Milk
Forms the creamy base of the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk so the soup becomes smooth and body-rich.
Baking soda
Neutralises acidity in very acidic tomatoes, softening the flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the cornstarch mixture to the milk. Cornstarch thickens only when it is heated and stirred, and it can clump if added to hot liquid without first being mixed with butter and warm milk. Stirring the mixture in carefully and keeping the milk boiling lets the starch swell evenly into a smooth, thickened base.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, white pepper):

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

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

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes