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Gumbo Soup

A hearty soup of okra, tomatoes, beef, potatoes, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 206 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Gumbo Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the okra and tomatoes.

  2. Add the beefsteak, cut into pieces, and cook until browned.

  3. Stir in the mashed potatoes and chopped parsley.

  4. Simmer until all ingredients are tender and flavors meld.

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 + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together206 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Okra + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra
Releases natural thickening that gives the soup its body as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and liquid that balance the richness of the meat.
Beefsteak
Provides savory meaty flavor, and browning deepens it through caramelized surface flavors.
Potatoes
Break down partly as they simmer, adding body and starch to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer until all ingredients are tender and flavors meld. Simmering gently lets the okra and potatoes soften fully and the flavors blend. Boiling hard can break up the vegetables and make the soup cloudy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (okra, potato, parsley):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Kalefits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, potato, parsley. 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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