Name: Okra and Tomatoes
Ingredients: 1 dozen large okra pods; 4 or 5 good-sized tomatoes; red pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; a little water

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 and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Slice the okra pods crosswise.

Cook

Stew the okra in a little water until almost tender.
At the same time, stew the tomatoes until soft.
When the okra is almost tender, add it to the tomatoes along with red pepper and salt.
Stew until everything is tender and well blended.

Serve

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.

Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together327 recipes

Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

Okra pods: Release natural thickening that gives the stewed dish a smooth, body-rich texture.
Tomatoes: Provide the liquid and acidity that soften the okra and form the stew's base.