Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and 124,287 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
In a pot, combine the tomatoes and hot water and bring to a boil.
In a bowl, mix the flour, butter, and 1 tablespoon of the tomatoes together.
Stir the flour mixture into the boiling tomato mixture.
Add the salt and sugar, and boil everything together for 15 minutes.
Finish and serve
Strain the soup through a sieve and serve with toasted bread.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,918 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Tomato + flourtop 22% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,065 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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, acidity and flavour of the soup.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it mixes with the hot tomato liquid.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the soup.
- Sugar
- Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with a touch of sweetness.
The step that matters
Mixing the flour into the tomatoes. Flour clumps if added dry or without first being blended smoothly with butter and some tomato. Mixing it into a paste first, then stirring it into the boiling liquid, helps it disperse evenly and thicken the soup without lumps.
“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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