Skip to main content
Main

New Orleans Crab Gumbo

A gumbo made with bacon, ham, okra, tomatoes, crabs, shrimp, herbs, and spices, served over boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By New Orleans Federation of Clubs · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

New Orleans Crab Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gumbo

  1. Fry bacon until golden brown.

  2. Add onion, then ham and okra pods (washed and finely cut). Let simmer about 15 minutes, stirring often.

  3. Add tomatoes, crabs, and shrimps (previously washed). Add water, thyme, bay leaf, parsley, pepper, and salt.

  4. Let simmer 2 or 2½ hours.

Serve

  1. Serve with boiled rice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

208Calories
25 gProtein
6 gFat
16 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Crab100g cooked97
Bacon1 slice cooked (8g)43
Okra1 cup (100g)33
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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. See the original page.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Parsley + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together206 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Thyme + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra pods
Release a natural thickening that gives the gumbo its body as they simmer.
Bacon
Its rendered fat carries flavour and browns the base before the liquid goes in.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that help build the body of the simmered broth.
Crabs
Release sweet, savoury juices and shell flavour into the broth during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Let simmer 2 or 2½ hours. A long, gentle simmer lets the okra thicken the broth and the flavours meld, while a hard boil can break down the tomatoes and toughen the crab meat.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, parsley, okra, crab, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCrab SoupCrab Soup39 recipes