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Gumbo Fillet

A chicken gumbo flavored with fillet, oysters, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gumbo Fillet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Dredge the chicken pieces in flour.

  2. In a pot, heat the lard and fry the chicken with the onion until browned, being careful not to burn.

Stew

  1. Add the boiling water, ham, salt, black pepper, red pepper, cloves, and allspice.

  2. Stew until the soup is rich with bits of chicken.

Finish and serve

  1. Transfer to a tureen and stir in the fillet and oysters.

  2. If using, add the oyster liquor for extra flavor.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Chicken
Provides the meat that flavors and enriches the soup as it stews.
Lard
Fat for frying the chicken, carrying flavor and aiding browning.
Flour (in the method)
Dredging coating that helps the chicken brown and thickens the soup.
Fillet
Powdered sassafras leaf that thickens the soup and adds its distinctive flavor.
Oysters
Add briny flavor and tender texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken without burning. Browning builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction, but scorched flour and fat turn bitter and can taint the whole pot, so heat must be moderated while frying.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, pepper, clove, allspice, oyster):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, pepper, clove, allspice, oyster. 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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