Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Cream of tomato soup

Subtitle: "A chemical experience"Peeled tomatoe


A well hidden secret here is that I never make tomato soup with fresh tomatoes. Gasp! Really? Yes, really! I add fresh tomatoes to my soup, that much is true but generally it's made from good canned tomatoes in this house. Overall I don't like the flavour from my soup uniquely made with fresh tomatoes. (Remind me I should ask my mom how she goes about).

This being said I admit I made fresh cream of tomato soup a couple of days ago. I figured it would be an instant hit with the kids, not a vegetable in sight, soothing sip-and-swallow soup. Well it was! Sad thing is: kids loved it, I didn't like it at all. It reminded me of a can of Campbells, and, if it tastes like that anyway, why bother and make your own?

So, why blog? Because the recipe mentioned to use 1/2 ts baking soda...... which reminded me of the following:

Friend -Hi Nic!- married to a chemist (no apothecary, the real Dow Chemical chemist type) making tomato soup with fresh tomatoes, complaining while stirring a huge pan, couldn't get rid of the sour flavour real tomatoes have in soup. Husband walks by, is invited to sample and says dead pan: well, if it's acidic add soda and goes on explaining about basic and non-basic fluids...

She adds soda (um.. the real thing not baking soda) indeed got rid of the sour and refuses to eat it. I think he did....

The story always stuck in my mind and we make fun of it every now and then (sorry Michiel!). Reading this recipes using baking soda it all came back and since I had some ripe tomatoes I decided to give it a go with above mentioned results. Won't give you a recipe here, plenty to find on the Net using fresh tomatoes, milk, baking soda, the occasional drop of sherry (in the soup, not for the cook).


Cream of tomato soup

But why? What does this baking soda do? Does it keep the tomatoes and milk from curdling? Neutralize the acidic in the tomato? Do you use baking soda, or add sugar or both? Do you make fresh tomato soup at all?

10 comments:

  1. That first picture is so neat.

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  2. This is the first time I ever heard of that! I use sugar.

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  3. Natrium bicarbonaat reageert met het zuur en neutraliseert zo het zuur. hoorde laatst een VPRO programma waarbij ze een een schepje natrium bicarbonaat gebruikten om met rul gehakt mee te bakken. Het zou de vleessmaak versterken (vergelijk vetsin). Daarna moest er wel een zuur bij, zoals tomaten, om het te neutraliseren anders hou je een zepige smaak over. Moet eerlijk bekennen het nog niet geprobeerd te hebben.
    Karin (Karin63)

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  4. I hadn't heard of that either. Really interesting though. I don't make tomato soup with fresh tomatoes either. Gasp, all this cheating!

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  5. Heb er ook nog nooit van gehoord, maar een mens is nooit te oud om te leren toch :-). Ik weet eigenlijk niet of ik het zal uitproberen in mijn tomatensoep van verse tomaten (ja, die maak ik dus, vorige week nog).

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  6. First of all, canned tomatoes are usually good tasting (right brand and all) and consistent and so an excellent choice for soup.
    Like Ilva I've always used sugar.
    Like Peabody, I love that first photo.

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  7. I also forgot to ask you what 'gezellig' means ? You left it on a comment about needing certain foods when the kids thought the house was feeling ' gezellig' - it's a great word, whatever it means.

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  8. Het tomaatje is een heel mooi plaatje...:-)

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  9. Als ik me goed herinner waren dit de mensen op de radio en is dit hun boek:
    titel: Cook & Chemist
    Auteurs: Eke Mariën & Jan Groenewold, onder redactie van Bas Husslage
    Uitgeverij: Karakter Uitgevers
    ISBN: 9789061129158
    Prijs: € 22,50
    Karin (Karin63)

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  10. Wow, I have never seen a tomato picture like that...so creative and cool. :)

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