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Gumbo File

A gumbo made with chicken, ham, oysters, herbs, spices, and file thickener.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gumbo File

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Fry the chicken until light brown.

  2. Add twice as much water as needed for the soup, then add the ham, herbs, and spices.

  3. Simmer for several hours.

  4. For a 6 o'clock dinner, start cooking at 1 o'clock.

Finish and serve

  1. When the chicken is cooked to shreds, remove the bags of herbs and spices.

  2. Add the oysters with their liquor just long enough to plump them.

  3. Stir in 1 tablespoon of file just before removing the pot from the stove; do not let it boil.

  4. Serve with rice, adding a tablespoonful 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Gives the soup its meaty body and rich flavour as it cooks down.
Oysters
Add briny, savoury flavour and a soft texture when gently plumped in the hot soup.
Ham
Adds smoky, salty depth to the broth as it simmers.
File
Thickens the soup and adds a earthy, slightly citrusy aroma when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stir in the file off the boil. File powder (ground sassafras leaves) can turn stringy and bitter if it boils, and it thickens best when stirred into hot liquid just before serving.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, oyster, ham, onion, carrot, clove, allspice):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, oyster, ham, onion, carrot, clove, allspice. 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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