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Okra Soup

A soup made with okra, chicken stock, rice, and chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Okra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the okra in chicken stock until tender.

  2. Add the boiled rice and chopped chicken to the pot.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  4. If using canned okra, do not boil.

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. Okra + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Okra + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  5. Okra + chickentop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together320 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 as it simmers, giving the soup its body and slightly thick texture.
Chicken stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the flavor of the whole soup.
Boiled rice
Adds bulk and soaks up some broth, making the soup more filling.
Cooked chicken
Provides protein and savory meaty flavor throughout the soup.

The step that matters

Boiling the okra until tender. Okra releases its thickening mucilage when cooked in liquid. Boiling until just tender develops body without turning the pieces mushy or slimy.

Swap the okra

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Okrathe original

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