Skip to main content
Main

Okra Soup

A hearty soup made with okra, tomatoes, beef shin, water, rice, and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the sliced okra, chopped tomatoes, and shin of beef.

  2. Add 4 quarts of water and bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 3 hours.

  4. Season the soup to taste.

  5. Stir in 1 tablespoon of rice to improve the flavor.

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. Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra
Thickens the soup as its pods release natural mucilage during simmering.
Shin of beef
Adds savory richness and body as its collagen softens during long simmering.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and moisture that build the soup's base flavor.
Rice
Adds body and starch to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Long, gentle simmer. Simmering at a low heat for a long time softens the tough shin meat and its collagen without toughening it. A hard boil can make the meat stringy and cloud the broth.

Swap the okra

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Okrathe original
  4. Carrotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, beef, 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.

More okra soup recipes

Beef 7 See all 84 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes