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Soup

Qreen Gumbo Soup

A hearty beef soup with green gumbo, tomatoes, onions, ham, sugar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Qreen Gumbo Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If using dry gumbo, soak it overnight in water.

Make the gumbo

  1. In a large pot, combine beef, gumbo, tomatoes, onions, and ham.

  2. Add sugar, salt, and pepper to taste.

  3. Cook slowly for 4 hours.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  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

Beef
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and savory during a long, slow cook.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture, giving the pot its body and bright flavor.
Onions
Soften and turn sweet and aromatic as they cook slowly over time.
Ham
Adds smoky, salty savoriness that seasons the whole pot.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 4 hours. A gentle simmer lets the connective tissue in beef break down slowly, so it turns tender. A hard boil toughens the meat and can scorch the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

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

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