Name: Okra Soup
Ingredients: 5 quarts water; 1.5 pounds beef; 5 dozen okras, cut in thin slices; 1 dozen tomatoes; 1 cup rice; salt to taste; cloves to taste

Why it works: Okra and tomato work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Okra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, combine 5 quarts of water and 1.5 pounds of beef.
Add 5 dozen sliced okra, 1 dozen tomatoes, and 1 cup of rice.
Season with salt and cloves.
Boil the mixture for 4 hours.
Strain the soup through a sieve 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.

Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together327 recipes

Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
Okra + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together250 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Okra + clovetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together78 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef: Provides savory meat flavor and richness to the broth as it simmers.
Okra: Releases natural thickening starch into the broth, giving the soup body.
Tomatoes: Adds acidity and a fresh, tangy background flavor to the soup.
Rice: Absorbs liquid and softens during boiling, adding body to the soup.