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Gumbo Soup

A hearty soup made with chicken or veal, onions, lard, gumbo, tomatoes, water, and red pepper, simmered slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gumbo Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the chicken or veal with onions in lard until brown.

  2. Transfer to a soup kettle.

  3. Add gumbo, tomatoes, water, and red pepper.

  4. Boil slowly for 4-5 hours, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon.

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

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  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 or veal knuckle
Provides the meat and rich flavor base for the soup as it simmers.
Onions
Browning in fat adds sweetness and savory depth to the broth.
Lard
Fat for frying that helps the meat and onions brown well.
Gumbo
Thickens the soup and adds body as it cooks down over hours.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that brighten and round out the soup.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 4-5 hours. A gentle simmer lets collagen and flavor slowly release from the meat and vegetables. A hard boil can toughen the meat and cloud the broth, and frequent stirring keeps solids from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, 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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