Name: Cream of Tomato Soup with Souffléed Cheese Toasts
Yield: about 6 cups
Ingredients: 2 1/2 tablespoons butter; 1 small onion, chopped; 1 celery rib, chopped; 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil, crumbled between your fingers; Pinch of ground cloves; 2 tablespoons flour; Two 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes in puree or juice; Pinch of baking soda; 2 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water; 1 1/2 cups milk; Sea salt and freshly ground pepper; Tomato paste if needed; 1 egg, separated, or 1 egg white only; 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard; Pinch of cayenne; 1 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese; 1 teaspoon minced scallion or shallot; 4 slices sandwich bread, lightly toasted

Why it works: Basil and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,979 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

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.

Basil + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,979 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Basil + clovetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,437 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Celery + basiltop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together812 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,668 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, celery, basil, clove, flour, tomato, milk):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Eggplantfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, celery, basil, clove, flour, tomato, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Cheddar Cheese	1 oz (28g)	113
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Cloves	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Cream of Tomato Soup with Souffléed Cheese Toasts