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Okra and Ham Pilaf

A pilaf of rice cooked with bacon, onions, green pepper, okra, garlic, ham, tomatoes, thyme, and cayenne.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Okra and Ham Pilaf

Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Render bacon in a dutch oven until brown but not crisp.

  2. Stir in onion, pepper and okra then sauté until wilted.

  3. Add garlic and ham and continue cooking for 5 minutes.

  4. Add tomatoes, thyme, cayenne, rice and water.

  5. Bring to a boil over high heat then cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

540Calories
34 gProtein
10 gFat
78 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Ham100g cooked145
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Okra1 cup (100g)33
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Okra + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Bacon
Renders fat for sautéing the vegetables and adds smoky, savoury flavour.
Long grain rice
Absorbs the cooking liquid and sets into separate, fluffy grains as it steams.
Okra
Softens as it cooks and releases natural starch that gives the pilaf body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid that flavour the rice as it absorbs them.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury meat flavour that carries through the dish.
Onion
Builds sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens in the bacon fat.

The step that matters

Simmer covered without lifting the lid. Rice cooks by absorbing a fixed amount of liquid in trapped steam. Lifting the lid releases steam and heat, which can leave the grains unevenly cooked and the liquid misjudged.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, okra, garlic, ham, tomato, thyme):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, okra, garlic, ham, tomato, thyme. 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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