Skip to main content
Main

Simple Gumbo File

A gumbo made with chicken, oysters, and dried sassafras leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Simple Gumbo File

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the roux

  1. Cut the hen into pieces.

  2. Heat the lard in a pot until boiling.

  3. Gradually stir in the flour until it turns brown.

Simmer the gumbo

  1. Add the chicken to the pot.

  2. Pour in 2 quarts of warm water.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Boil until the chicken falls off the bones.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the oysters just before removing from heat.

  2. Let the oysters cook until the edges curl.

  3. Remove from the stove.

  4. Add enough file to thicken the mixture.

  5. Serve in bowls half filled with cooked rice.

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. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Browns with the lard to form a roux that gives the gumbo body and color.
Hen
Releases flavor and gelatin into the broth as it simmers until falling off the bones.
Oysters
Add briny flavor and tender texture when cooked only briefly at the end.
File
Thickens the broth and adds a distinctive earthy, herbal flavor.

The step that matters

Add the oysters just before removing from heat. Oysters toughen and shrink when overcooked, so they should be added late and cooked only until their edges curl.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, pepper, flour, 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.

You might also like

Rice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipesRice and Cheese CasseroleRice and Cheese Casserole23 recipes