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Tomato Bisque

A creamy tomato bisque made with tomatoes, onion, 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 for 15 minutes.

  2. Press through a colander and return 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, stirring briskly.

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

  3. Let 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

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

The step that matters

Pour the scalded milk slowly while stirring briskly. Tomato is acidic, and adding hot milk too quickly can curdle or separate it. Pouring slowly while stirring disperses the milk 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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