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Okra Gumbo

A hearty stew of chicken, ham, okra, tomatoes, and spices simmered in lard and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 145 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Okra Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean and cut up the chicken.

  2. Dice the ham and chop the onion, parsley, and thyme.

  3. Skin the tomatoes, chop them finely, and save the juice.

  4. Wash, stem, and slice the okra into ½-inch thick pieces.

Make the gumbo

  1. In a soup kettle, heat the lard and butter, then add the chicken and ham.

  2. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

  3. Add the chopped onions, parsley, thyme, and tomatoes, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.

  4. Add the okra and cook until browned, then add the tomato juice.

  5. Stir frequently to avoid scorching, as it can spoil the flavor.

  6. Alternatively, fry the okra separately with seasoning and then add it to the chicken.

Simmer and serve

  1. Once well fried, add about 3 quarts of boiling water and simmer on low for about an hour.

  2. Serve hot with boiled rice.

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 + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Onion + okratop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together715 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra
Releases its natural starch as it cooks, thickening the gumbo broth.
Chicken
Gives the gumbo its main meaty flavor and body as it simmers.
Ham
Adds smoky, salty depth to the fat and broth.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building the base aroma.
Lard
Carries flavor and helps the okra and onion brown in the pot.

The step that matters

Stirring the pot frequently. Onion, okra and tomato contain sugars and starches that scorch on the hot base of the kettle. Scorched bits turn bitter and can spread a burnt taste through the whole gumbo, so frequent stirring keeps the mixture even.

Swap the okra

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, pepper, ham, thyme, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Okrathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, pepper, ham, thyme, 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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