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Okra Tomato Soup

A hearty soup made with okra, tomatoes, corn, and a lean soup bone, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and tomato 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 ↓

Okra Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the soup bone in a large pot with the water and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.

Simmer and finish

  1. Add salt, tomatoes, and sliced okra to the pot.

  2. Boil for about 3 hours.

  3. Fifteen minutes before serving, cut the corn from the ears and add it to the soup.

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

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Okra + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together161 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Okra
Releases mucilage that thickens the soup as it cooks.
Soup bone
Adds savory flavor and body to the broth as it simmers.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and a bright flavor that balances the long-simmered broth.
Corn
Adds sweetness and fresh texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam at the start. Foam that rises during the first boil contains coagulated proteins and impurities. Removing it early keeps the broth clearer and cleaner in flavor.

Swap the okra

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, tomato. 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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