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Gumbo Soup

A hearty soup made with okra, tomatoes, beefsteak, potatoes, hominy, parsley, and lettuce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and lettuce share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Gumbo Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  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 potatoes and hominy, and simmer until tender.

Serve

  1. Garnish with parsley and serve with a side salad of lettuce.

  2. For dessert, prepare chocolate blanc-mange.

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 + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Parsley + lettucetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak
Provides the main protein and savory meaty flavor of the soup.
Okra
Adds body and a thickening quality to the soup as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and liquid that builds the soup's base flavor.
Potatoes
Soften during simmering and add starchy body to the soup.
Hominy
Adds a soft, chewy texture that holds up during simmering.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, tomato, potato, lettuce, chocolate. 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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