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Okba Gumbo

A gumbo made with lard, flour, chicken, onion, herbs, okra, rice, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Okba Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the lard in a pot and brown the flour carefully.

  2. Add the chicken pieces and stew for 30 minutes.

  3. Stir in the chopped onion, thyme, parsley, and marjoram.

  4. Pour in the boiling water and add the rice.

  5. Stir in the chopped okra one hour 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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together206 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Thyme + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together145 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

Flour
Browned in lard, it thickens the gumbo and adds a toasty, nutty flavor.
Okra
Releases natural starch as it cooks, helping to thicken and give the gumbo body.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and softens, adding bulk and body to the stew.
Chicken
Provides the main protein and savory meaty flavor as it stews.

The step that matters

Browning the flour. Flour browned slowly in fat develops nutty flavor and color, and it must be stirred constantly, because scorched flour turns bitter and dark and spoils the gumbo's taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, chicken, thyme, parsley, marjoram, rice, okra):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, chicken, thyme, parsley, marjoram, rice, okra. 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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