Name: Okra and Tomatoes
Ingredients: 2 cups okra, washed, blanched, and cut; 2 cups peeled and cored tomatoes

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 ↓

Okra and Tomatoes

Ingredients

2 cups okra, washed, blanched, and cut
2 cups peeled and cored tomatoes

Directions

Cook

In a jacketed kettle, combine the okra and tomatoes.
Turn on the steam and bring to a boil.
Cook for 15 minutes.

Can and process

Place the mixture in cans.
Process No. 2 cans for 15 minutes at 240°F (115°C).
Process No. 3 cans for 20 minutes at 240°F (115°C).

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.

Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together327 recipes

Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra: Provides the main vegetable body and a mild, slightly thickening texture when cooked.
Tomatoes: Adds moisture, acidity and flavor that combine with the okra as it simmers.

The step that matters

Processing the cans at 240°F (115°C). Canned low-acid vegetables must be held at a high enough temperature for a long enough time to destroy harmful microbes. Shortening or lowering the processing time or temperature can leave the food unsafe. Can sizes need their own times, so follow the time listed for each size.

“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.