Skip to main content
Main

Okra Soup

A hearty soup made with ham, veal bones, tomatoes, corn, lima beans, and fresh okra.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tomato and okra work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Okra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Dice 1 ounce raw lean ham and a little more veal, 1 onion, and 1 green pepper.

  2. Brown the diced ham, veal, onion, and green pepper in a saucepan without burning for 10 minutes, using a little butter.

Simmer the soup

  1. Add 5 pints water and 1 pint tomato juice.

  2. Season with 1 tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper, and add about 1 pound raw veal bones.

  3. Boil slowly for 30 minutes.

  4. Trim, wash, and cut 1 dozen fresh okra into 1-inch pieces.

  5. Add the okra to the soup and boil until they are done, about 25 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Add 2 tablespoons each canned corn and lima beans, cook a few minutes.

  2. Take out the bones, skim the fat, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

455Calories
35 gProtein
16 gFat
47 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Okra1 cup (100g)33
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Vealnot 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.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Onion + okratop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together715 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Corn + okratop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together161 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal bones
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the water, giving the broth body.
Okra
Releases mucilage as it cooks, thickening the soup and giving it a silky body.
Lean ham
Adds savory, smoky flavor to the browned base.
Tomato juice
Adds acidity and color, balancing the rich broth.
Onion
Browns to build sweetness and aroma in the base.
Green pepper
Adds fresh, slightly bitter aroma and vegetable flavor to the base.

The step that matters

Adding the okra. Okra thickens the soup as it cooks, but prolonged boiling breaks the pieces down and makes the texture slimy. Add it after the broth has simmered and cook only until tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, tomato, veal, corn, pepper, okra):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, tomato, veal, corn, pepper, okra. 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.

More okra soup recipes

Beef 7 See all 84 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes