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Chicken Gumbo

A stew of chicken, tomatoes, rice, and sassafras herb simmered slowly with black pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Chicken Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Place chicken pieces in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Cook until very tender.

Finish the gumbo

  1. Add salt to taste, then add rice, tomatoes, and black pepper.

  2. Season with filé and let cook slowly for three hours.

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. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  4. Tomato + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein and savory flavor as it simmers into the broth.
Rice
Releases starch as it cooks, adding body and thickness to the broth.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and color, balancing the rich flavor of the chicken broth.
Filé
Thickens the liquid and adds an earthy, distinctive aroma to the gumbo.

The step that matters

Adding the filé. Filé thickens by forming gel-like strands when it is stirred into liquid. If it is boiled after adding, it turns stringy and ropy, so it should be added off the heat or kept below a simmer.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, chicken, rice):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, chicken, rice. 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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