Skip to main content
Main

Ochra, or Gumbo Soup

A hearty soup made with chicken, salt pork, okra, tomatoes, and butter, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Ochra, or Gumbo Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine the chicken and salt pork as if to fry.

  2. Add the sliced okra and just enough cold water to cover it.

  3. Stew for 1 hour.

  4. Add the sliced tomatoes and 2 to 4 quarts of boiling water.

  5. Cover closely and skim frequently.

  6. Boil until the meat and vegetables fall apart.

  7. Stir in the butter, pepper, and salt to taste.

  8. Serve hot.

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. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Okra + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 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

Chicken
Provides the meat that becomes tender and flavours the broth as it simmers.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavour to the pot as it renders while the chicken cooks.
Okra
Releases natural thickening that gives the gumbo its body as it stews.
Ripe tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid, balancing the richness of the fat and meat.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounder mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Stew the okra before adding the tomatoes and boiling water. Okra's thickening comes from its mucilage, which is released slowly during gentle stewing. Adding the liquid and tomatoes too early dilutes the pot and changes how the body develops.

Swap the okra

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Okrathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pork, tomato, butter, 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 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes