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Ochra Soup

A hearty soup of bacon, beef, tomatoes, okra, and optional Lima beans simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ochra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stew

  1. Cut the bacon and beef into small pieces.

  2. In a pot, combine the bacon, beef, melted butter, tomatoes, okra, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Cover the ingredients with boiling water.

  4. Let them stew slowly for 1 hour.

Boil and strain

  1. Add 3 quarts of hot water.

  2. Increase the heat to bring the soup to a boil.

  3. Skim the surface.

  4. Stir frequently with a wooden or silver spoon.

  5. Boil until the tomatoes are broken down.

  6. Continue boiling until the okra is dissolved.

  7. Strain the soup.

Serve

  1. Serve with toasted bread cubes added just before serving.

  2. Add boiled Lima beans to the tureen 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 + lima beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

Okra
Breaks down during boiling to thicken the soup and give it body.
Tomatoes
Break down into the broth, adding acidity and body to the soup.
Beef
Slow stewing softens the meat and adds savory flavor to the broth.
Bacon
Renders fat and adds smoky, savory flavor to the soup base.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the soup.

The step that matters

Boil until the okra is dissolved. Okra releases mucilage as it cooks, which thickens the soup. Stopping too early leaves it thin and stringy, while stirring often prevents the bottom from scorching.

Swap the lima beans

The recipe marks lima beans as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, tomato, okra, pepper, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, tomato, okra, pepper, bread. 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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