Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Ceeam of Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Stew the peeled tomatoes with a pinch of baking soda until soft.
Strain the mixture and return it to the heat with the hot boiled milk.
Season with salt and pepper, then add the butter.
Stir in the rolled crackers and serve hot.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + milktop 15% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,226 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peeled tomatoes
- Provide the main body, flavor and acidity of the soup.
- Hot boiled milk
- Adds creaminess and a smooth, mellow body to the soup.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
- Rolled crackers
- Starch from the crackers thickens the soup slightly.
- Baking soda
- Neutralizes some tomato acidity, helping keep the milk from curdling.
The step that matters
Returning the strained tomato to the heat with the milk. Tomato is acidic, and acid can curdle hot milk. The baking soda added earlier neutralizes some of that acidity, so heat should stay moderate and the soup should not be allowed to boil hard once combined.
“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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