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French Tomato Soup

A tomato soup made with tomatoes, water, milk, butter, onion, baking soda, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

French Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and onion in a pot.

  2. Boil until the vegetables are nearly done, about 15-20 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Rub the strained mixture through a sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil the milk.

  2. Stir in the baking soda and butter.

  3. Set the milk aside to keep hot.

  4. Add pepper and salt to the strained tomatoes.

  5. Let the tomatoes simmer for 5 minutes.

  6. Stir in the milk.

  7. Serve immediately.

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.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the tomato's acidity into a smooth soup.
Baking soda
Neutralises some tomato acidity, reducing sharpness and preventing the milk from curdling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the soup.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk. Tomato acid can curdle hot milk. Baking soda is already added to the tomatoes, and the milk should be hot but not boiling when combined, so the soup stays smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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