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Tomato and Pea Soup

A soup made from canned tomatoes, peas, stock, butter, and cornstarch, served with crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato and Pea Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Heat the canned peas and tomatoes together, then press through a sieve.

  2. Add the mixture to the seasoned stock and bring to a boil.

  3. Dilute the cornstarch with cold water, then stir it into the hot soup.

  4. Let the soup simmer for ten minutes, then add the butter in small pieces, stirring well.

  5. Season with salt and pepper, and add the remaining ½ cup of canned peas.

Serve

  1. Serve with croutons or crackers.

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.

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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Peas + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  3. Peas + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,331 recipes

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

  4. Peas + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,887 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Canned peas
Adds body, sweetness and color to the soup.
Canned tomatoes
Supplies acidity, moisture and flavor as the soup's base.
Seasoned stock
Provides the liquid base and savory flavor of the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and smooth finish.
Cornstarch
Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot liquid.

The step that matters

Dilute the cornstarch in cold water first. Starch mixed into cold water disperses evenly. Added dry or undiluted to hot soup, it clumps and thickens unevenly, leaving lumps.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

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