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Fricassee of Corn and Okra

A savory stew of sliced okra and green corn cooked in lard, finished with milk and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and corn work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 161 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Fricassee of Corn and Okra

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat hot lard in a pan.

  2. Add 1 pint of sliced okra and fry for a few moments.

  3. Stir in 1½ pints of cut green corn and cook until thoroughly done.

  4. Pour off some grease, then sprinkle with a little flour and add ¼ cup of milk.

  5. Season with salt and pepper just before serving.

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 + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together161 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra
Its tender slices soften and release mucilage that thickens the dish slightly.
Green corn
Provides the main body and sweet flavour once cooked through.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the flour-thickened pan juices.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the liquid in the pan so it clings to the okra and corn.

The step that matters

Pour off some grease before adding the flour and milk. Leaving too much fat in the pan keeps the flour from blending smoothly, so it can clump. Pouring off most of the grease lets the flour absorb the milk and form an even, lightly thickened sauce.

Swap the okra

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, milk, 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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