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Gumbo Soup

A chicken-based soup with green gumbo, celery root, tomatoes, and a flour roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Gumbo Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Dress and wash the chicken in cold water, then cut it into joints and split the breast and back down the middle.

  2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then dredge it with flour.

  3. Heat the butter and lard in a frying pan until hot, then fry the chicken until golden brown on both sides.

Make the soup

  1. Transfer the chicken to a soup kettle and add 3 quarts of boiling water. Cover and let it boil slowly for 3 hours.

  2. After 1 hour, add the gumbo, celery root, tomatoes, and soup greens. Let them boil for 2 hours.

Thicken and serve

  1. In the frying pan, heat the browned flour, then stir in a small ladle of hot water and let it boil for a few minutes, stirring well.

  2. Stir the flour mixture into the soup, adding salt and pepper to taste. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes.

  3. Strain the soup through a colander into a tureen. You should have about 2.5 pints of soup.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken (in the method)
Provides the meat and rich flavour that the broth is built on during long simmering.
Butter and lard
Fat for frying the floured chicken, giving it golden browning and a savoury crust.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty flavour when stirred into the broth.
Gumbo greens
Add body and vegetal flavour to the soup as they simmer.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fresh flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken in the fat. Floured chicken must be fried until golden on both sides, because the browned surface adds colour and roasted flavour to the broth. Pale, underdone pieces leave the soup flat and can make the flour taste raw.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, celery, parsley, flour, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, celery, parsley, flour, 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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