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Tomato Soup

A hearty soup made with tomatoes, stock, onions, carrot, bacon, bouquet garni, peppercorns, butter, corn flour, and salt, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

Why it works: Tomato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,606 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Slice the onions, carrot, and bacon; add the peppercorns and bouquet garni, and fry until browned.

Build and simmer the soup

  1. Mix the corn flour with a little stock to form a smooth paste, then stir it into the stewpan.

  2. Add the tomatoes, remaining stock, and salt; let simmer for one hour.

  3. Remove from heat and strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the soup to a clean saucepan and heat until hot; if not thick enough, sprinkle in 1 tablespoon of crushed tapioca or semolina.

  2. Serve with fried bread.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,099 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together794 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup, along with acidity.
Stock
Supplies the liquid base that the soup is simmered and thinned with.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth when fried until browned.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and helps cook the aromatics without sticking.
Corn flour
Starch that thickens the soup as it heats and cooks.

The step that matters

Thickening with corn flour. Corn flour must be mixed smooth with a little cold stock before it goes into the hot pan, otherwise it clumps. Starch thickens only when heated, so the soup needs enough heat to thicken properly.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, carrot, butter, corn, flour, bread):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Okrabetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, carrot, butter, corn, flour, bread. 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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