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Salad

Okra Salad

A salad of boiled okra, horseradish, garlic, lettuce, seasoned with salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and lettuce share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Okra Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the okra

  1. Clean and boil the okra pods until tender, then drain and let cool.

  2. Cut the cooled okra into thin slices and mix with grated horseradish.

Assemble and serve

  1. Rub a salad bowl with the cut clove of garlic.

  2. Place a bed of lettuce leaves in the bowl.

  3. Add the okra slices on top of the lettuce.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Pour over oil and vinegar dressing, garnish tastefully, and serve.

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 + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Okra + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Horseradish + lettucetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together79 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Okra + horseradishtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra pods
Form the main body of the salad, providing the bulk and texture of the dish.
Grated horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat that contrasts with the mild okra.
Garlic
Adds aroma when the bowl is rubbed with it, a subtle flavour rather than a strong one.
Oil
Adds fat and richness to the dressing and carries flavour across the salad.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the dressing and balances the richness of the oil.

The step that matters

Boil the okra until tender, then cool it fully. Okra that is undercooked stays fibrous and tough, while overcooked okra turns soft and slimy. Cooling it before slicing keeps the slices firm and prevents them from wilting or releasing extra moisture into the dressing.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (okra, horseradish, garlic, lettuce, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, horseradish, garlic, lettuce, pepper, vinegar. 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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