Skip to main content
Main

Okra Soup

A hearty soup made with chicken, veal, beef, okra, corn, lima beans, tomatoes, peppers, carrot, onion, celery, butter, salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Okra and lima beans share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 64 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Okra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Cut the chicken and place it in a large pot with the butter and sliced tomatoes.

  2. Add the veal and beef, cut into small pieces, along with the sliced okra, green corn, Lima beans, celery, parsley, and salt.

  3. Pour in 1 quart of water and bring to a boil.

  4. Boil for 3-4 hours, then add the remaining water and boil for an additional 30 minutes.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup and serve, reserving the okra, corn, and other vegetables to be eaten as a side dish.

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 + lima beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Corn + lima beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Corn + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Gives the broth its body and savory meaty flavor as it simmers for hours.
Okra
Releases natural thickening starch into the broth during long simmering.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fruity flavor that brightens the rich broth.
Beef
Contributes deep savory flavor and richness to the broth during long cooking.
Lima beans
Add starchy body and a mild, buttery texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Long, gentle boil of the meats. Tough cuts of veal and beef need prolonged simmering to become tender and to release collagen and flavor into the broth. Keeping the liquid at a steady simmer rather than a hard rolling boil helps keep the broth clear and the meat tender.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, veal, beef, okra, corn, tomato, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lima beansthe original
  3. Lentilsfits about as well
  4. Peanutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, veal, beef, okra, corn, tomato, 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.

More okra soup recipes

Beef 7 See all 84 →

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipes