Name: Okra Soup
Ingredients: 8 pounds okra, sliced into thin disks; 5 gallons soup stock; 5 ounces coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon coriander seed; 1 teaspoon powdered cloves; pounds rice

Why it works: Okra and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 250 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Okra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Blanch the sliced okra for 10 minutes, then dip in cold water.
Boil the rice for 25 minutes.
Mix the okra and rice, then fill jars or cans half full.
In a large pot, combine the soup stock, salt, coriander seed, and powdered cloves, and bring to a boil.
Fill the remaining portion of the jars or cans with the boiling soup stock.
Partially seal the glass jars or cap the tin cans.
Process the jars for 2 hours in a hot-water bath, 90 minutes in a water-seal outfit, 75 minutes in a 5-pound steam-pressure outfit, or 60 minutes in a pressure cooker.

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 + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together250 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Okra + coriandertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together55 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Coriander + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,854 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Coriander + clovetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,221 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Okra + clovetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together78 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).