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Cream of Tomato Soup

A tomato soup thickened with white sauce and butter, seasoned with salt, cayenne, celery salt, baking soda, and sugar.

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

Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,377 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Strain the tomatoes through a sieve and place them in a bowl.

  2. Add water, salt, cayenne pepper, grated onion, celery salt, baking soda, and sugar to the tomatoes.

Cook and finish

  1. Boil the mixture for 3 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

  3. Prepare the white sauce and add it to the tomato mixture.

  4. 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 + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

Sieved tomatoes
Form the main body and flavor of the soup.
Baking soda
Neutralizes some tomato acidity, softening the soup's sharp taste.
White sauce
Adds creaminess and body, giving the soup its cream-style texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel when stirred in off the heat.
Sugar
Balances the tomato's acidity with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the tomatoes. Baking soda reacts with tomato acid and releases carbon dioxide, so it can foam up the pan. Adding it with the other seasonings and then boiling can cause a sudden rise in volume, so the pot should be large enough to contain the foam.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Carrotbetter flavor fit
  3. Mustardbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, celery, sugar, butter, sauce. 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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