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Gumbo Soup

A chicken-based soup with tomatoes, okra, pepper, and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Gumbo Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gumbo

  1. Boil the chicken in 2 quarts of water.

  2. Add tomatoes, okra, red pepper or cayenne, and salt.

  3. Boil for 1 hour.

  4. For shrimp, crab, or oyster gumbo, use 2 quarts of stock and add a can of shrimp, crabs, or oysters 5 minutes before serving.

Cook the rice and serve

  1. Wash the rice several times, then add just enough cold water to prevent burning.

  2. Cover and cook over low heat, uncovering near the end to let steam escape.

  3. Serve gumbo by placing a tablespoon of rice in each soup plate and filling with gumbo.

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.

  1. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Okra + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  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

Chicken
Cooks into the water to give the soup its main meaty flavor and body.
Okra
Releases natural thickening starch as it simmers, giving the gumbo body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fruity flavor that balances the rich broth.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and is served under the gumbo as a starchy base.

The step that matters

Adding just enough water to the rice. Rice cooked with too little water scorches on the bottom, while too much water makes it soggy. Measuring enough cold water to absorb fully and covering the pot with low heat lets the grains steam evenly.

Swap the okra

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Okrathe original
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, pepper, rice. 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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