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Okra Soup

A hearty soup made with okra, lima beans, squash, tomatoes, meat, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and lima beans share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 64 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Okra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, bring 1 gallon of water to a boil.

  2. Add 2 handfuls of cut okra and simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Stir in 1 handful of lima beans and pieces of tender squash.

  4. Add fresh meat or a fowl, boiled until well done.

  5. One hour before serving, add 5 large peeled and sliced tomatoes.

  6. When almost done, stir in a lump of butter rolled in flour.

  7. Season with salt and pepper to taste, ensuring the soup is not too thick.

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. Okra + lima beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Okra + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together234 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Lima beans + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together131 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
Releases starchy mucilage that thickens the broth and gives the soup its body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and bright flavor, and break down to give the broth body.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the broth and butter adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Lima beans
Add starch and a creamy texture that helps thicken the soup.
Fresh meat or fowl
Releases savory juices and flavor into the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Adding the butter and flour lump. Flour dropped in whole will clump and stay raw; it should be well dispersed in hot liquid and cooked through to thicken smoothly without a floury taste.

Swap the lima beans

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, meat, tomato, butter, flour, 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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