Name: Okra Stewed with Fine Herbs
Ingredients: Okra; 1 pint boiling water; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 tablespoon butter; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Okra Stewed with Fine Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

Cut off both ends of the okra and wash them in cold water.
Place the okra in a saucepan with 1 pint of boiling water and ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt.
Boil on a brisk fire until tender, then drain some of the liquid.

Finish

Add 1 tablespoon of butter, and season with ¼ teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon of pepper, and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Okra + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together206 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Okra + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together727 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).