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Tomato Soup

A hearty soup made with chicken, bacon, tomatoes, onions, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Tomato Soup

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,923 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine the chicken, bacon, and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the tomatoes, sugar, onions, salt, and pepper.

  4. Boil until everything is well cooked.

Thicken and serve

  1. Rub the flour into some butter to make a paste.

  2. Thin the paste with a bit of the soup.

  3. Stir the thinned paste back into the pot.

  4. Allow the soup to boil once more.

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

  1. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,031 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 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

Flour
Mixed with butter and thinned into the soup, it thickens the liquid into a smoother body.
Tomatoes
Form the base of the soup, providing its main flavor, acidity, and liquid.
Bacon
Renders fat and savory flavor into the broth as it simmers with the chicken.
Chicken
Cooks into the broth, adding savory depth and body to the soup.
Onions
Soften during cooking and add aromatic sweetness to the soup base.

The step that matters

Thinning the flour paste before stirring it in. Adding the flour-butter paste directly to hot soup can form lumps. Thinning it first with some hot soup lets the starch disperse evenly so the soup thickens smoothly.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, sugar, pepper, flour, butter. 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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