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Okra and Tomato Soup

A hearty soup made with beef, mutton bones, ham, okra, tomatoes, herbs, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and tomato work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Okra and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Crack the bones into splinters and cut the meat into strips.

  2. Mince the herbs and add them to the cold water with the meat and bones.

  3. Cook for 4 hours, then strain the liquid and divide it into two portions.

  4. Season the meat and bones in one portion and set aside in a cold place.

Make the soup

  1. Pour the stock for today's soup back into the pot, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.

  2. Skim the surface, then add the okra, tomatoes, and sugar.

  3. Simmer for 30 minutes, then boil briskly for 1 minute 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 + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Coarse beef
Releases flavour and body into the stock as it cooks slowly in water.
Mutton bones
Add gelatin and savoury depth to the stock as they simmer.
Okra and tomatoes
Okra thickens the soup while tomatoes add acidity and a bright, fresh flavour.
White sugar
Balances the acidity of the tomatoes with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Skimming before adding the okra and tomatoes. Skimming removes fat and loose impurities that rise to the surface, keeping the stock clear and the flavour clean before the vegetables go in.

Swap the okra

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, ham, tomato, pepper, sugar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Okrathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, ham, tomato, pepper, sugar. 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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