Skip to main content
Main

To Make Gumbo

A stew of okra, chicken, tomatoes, corn, and aromatics simmered in a flavorful broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

To Make Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Combine sliced okra and cold water in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Macerate the chicken flesh and bones until almost jelly-like.

  4. Add the chicken to the pot.

  5. Add scalded tomatoes and grated corn to the pot.

  6. Stir frequently to prevent burning.

  7. Season with butter, pepper, and salt.

Finish and serve

  1. When nearly done, add chopped celery, parsley, and onion, and stir constantly.

  2. When the mixture becomes ropy and aromatic, serve hot.

  3. For a French twist, add wine 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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Okra + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together206 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra
Releases mucilage that thickens the broth and gives the gumbo its ropy body.
Chicken
Contributes savory flavor and, through the bones, gelatin that adds richness and body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fresh flavor that balance the richness of the chicken and butter.
Sweet corn
Adds natural sweetness and body as its starch thickens the mixture.

The step that matters

Stir frequently to prevent burning. Okra, grated corn and tomatoes thicken and their sugars darken quickly near the bottom of the pot. Frequent stirring keeps the mixture from scorching, which would leave a bitter taste.

Swap the okra

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, tomato, corn, butter, pepper, celery, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, corn, butter, pepper, celery, parsley. 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 gumbo recipes

Chicken 45Soup 37Okra 30Oyster 21Crab 8French 8 See all 76 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesCorn FrittersCorn Fritters203 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipes