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Stewed Okra, with Tomatoes

A stew of okra and tomatoes simmered with butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and tomato 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 ↓

Stewed Okra, with Tomatoes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the stew

  1. In a saucepan, combine okra, tomatoes, and water.

  2. Add butter, salt, and pepper.

  3. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Bake and serve

  1. For baking, transfer to a buttered deep baking dish.

  2. Sprinkle with fresh bread crumbs and add small pieces of butter on top.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Okra + tomatotop 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. Butter + peppertop 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

Okra
Its pectin and mucilage thicken the stew as it simmers, giving it a body.
Tomatoes
Their juice provides liquid and acidity that gently cooks the okra into the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the bread crumbs brown in the oven.
Fresh bread crumbs (in the method)
Form a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Simmering the okra and tomatoes. Cooking too long or too hard can break the okra down into a mushy texture, while too short a simmer leaves the stew thin and the okra slightly slimy. Keeping a gentle simmer for the stated time balances body and texture.

Swap the okra

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, butter, 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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