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Okra and Tomato

A simple stew of tomatoes, okra, green peppers, butter, and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and okra work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Okra and Tomato

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the tomatoes.

  2. Slice the tender okra across or lengthwise if very small.

  3. Slice one to three green peppers based on size and spiciness.

Cook and serve

  1. Stew the tomatoes, okra, and peppers together until cooked.

  2. Season with butter and coarse sea salt before serving.

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 + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  3. Okra + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Break down into a juicy base that forms the body of the stew.
Okra
Releases natural thickening starch during stewing, giving the stew body.
Green peppers
Add fresh, slightly bitter vegetal flavor and a little crisp texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished stew.

The step that matters

Stew until cooked. Okra needs enough time in liquid to soften and release its thickening starch, while the tomatoes break down. Stopping too early leaves the okra slimy-raw or stew watery. Slices should be similar in size so they cook evenly.

Swap the okra

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Okrathe original

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