Name: Boiled Okra
Ingredients: okra; coarse sea salt; butter; pepper

Why it works: Okra and pepper work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 727 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Boiled Okra

Ingredients

okra
coarse sea salt
butter
pepper

Directions

Wash the okra and cut off a small piece from each end.
Soak the okra in cold water for 15-20 minutes, then drain.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the okra, ensuring it is covered.
Cover the pot and boil until the okra is soft.
Drain the okra and season with butter, pepper, and salt.

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.

Okra + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together727 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Okra + buttertop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together352 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).