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Ochra Soup

A simmered soup of okra, onions, lima beans, tomatoes, and meat, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ochra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and slice two double handfuls of young okra thinly.

  2. Add two finely chopped onions to the okra.

  3. Place the okra and onions into a gallon of water in an earthen or iron pot.

  4. Keep the mixture steadily simmering, not boiling, and season with pepper and salt.

Cook the soup

  1. At 12 o'clock, add a handful of lima beans.

  2. At half‑past one o'clock, add three cleaned young cimlins cut into small pieces, a fowl or knuckle of veal, a bit of boiled bacon or pork, and six tomatoes with skins removed.

  3. When nearly done, thicken the soup with a spoonful of butter mixed with one of flour.

  4. Boil rice separately to serve with the soup.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

282Calories
10 gProtein
12 gFat
36 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Lima Bean1/2 cup (85g) cooked108
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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.

By Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Lima beans + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together131 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Lima beans + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together331 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

Okra (in the method)
Thickens the soup as it cooks and gives it its body.
Lima beans
Add body and a starchy, creamy texture to the broth.
Tomatoes (in the method)
Add acidity and a fresh, savoury flavour to the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and, mixed with flour, helps finish the soup's thickness.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they soften in the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the soup simmering, not boiling. A gentle simmer lets the okra and beans soften and release their starch slowly, giving a smooth texture. A hard boil breaks vegetables apart and can make the soup cloudy and uneven.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, tomato, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, tomato, 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.

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