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Creole Jambalaya

A Creole rice dish with shrimp, ham, oysters, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Creole Jambalaya

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop all seasonings (garlic, parsley, onion, thyme) very finely.

Make the jambalaya

  1. In a saucepan, heat lard over medium heat.

  2. Add ham, shrimp, and chopped seasonings; cook until browned.

  3. Add oysters and their liquor, then stir in rice.

  4. Season with coloring pepper, salt, and pepper to taste.

  5. Cover rice with 2 inches of water.

  6. Cook until the water is absorbed and the rice is done.

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. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 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

Shrimp
Provides the main seafood flavor and tender bite once cooked through.
Head rice
Absorbs the cooking water and liquid, giving the dish its body and structure.
Oysters
Adds briny seafood flavor, and their liquor contributes moisture to the rice.
Ham
Browns in the lard to add savory, smoky depth to the base.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the aromatic base of the dish.
Garlic
Contributes pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice in water until absorbed. Rice needs enough water to hydrate fully; too little leaves it hard, while too much makes it mushy. Covering traps steam so the grains cook evenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shrimp, ham, garlic, parsley, tomato, oyster, onion):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against shrimp, ham, garlic, parsley, tomato, oyster, onion. 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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