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Tomato Bisque

A creamy tomato soup made with canned tomatoes, crackers, butter, baking soda, milk, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Tomato Bisque

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 ↓

Tomato Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Make the tomato base

  1. In a pot, combine the strained tomatoes, rolled crackers, butter, baking soda, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cook until the mixture thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. In a double boiler, heat the fresh milk.

  2. Once hot, add the thickened tomato mixture to the milk.

  3. Let it come to a gentle boil and serve.

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. 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 + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Canned tomatoes
Provide the main body and tomato flavor of the bisque.
Rolled crackers
Thicken the mixture as their starch absorbs liquid and swells during cooking.
Fresh milk
Forms the creamy base that gives the bisque its smooth, rich texture.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some tomato acidity, mellowing the flavor and softening the color.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the tomato mixture to the milk. Pouring acidic tomato into hot milk can curdle the milk proteins. Heating gently in a double boiler and adding the thickened tomato mixture once the milk is hot helps keep the bisque smooth rather than grainy or separated.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, 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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