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Okra, or Gumbo Soup, with Chicken

A chicken and okra soup with ham, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Okra, or Gumbo Soup, with Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and lightly fry the chicken pieces.

  2. Add the chopped onions and raw ham; cook for a few minutes.

  3. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil.

  4. Skim off the grease.

  5. Add the bundle of parsley, celery, leek, salt, pepper, and sliced green peppers.

  6. Reduce heat and let it boil slowly until the chicken is half cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the quartered tomatoes, rice, and sliced okra.

  2. Cook until everything is tender.

  3. Skim the soup.

  4. Remove the bundle.

  5. Serve.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Parsley + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main meat and savory flavor as it cooks slowly in the broth.
Okra
Releases mucilage that gives the gumbo its body and slightly thickened texture.
Carolina rice
Absorbs liquid and adds starch that helps thicken the soup as it cooks.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fresh flavor that balances the rich broth and meats.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, building the flavor base of the soup.

The step that matters

Reduce heat and let it boil slowly until the chicken is half cooked. A hard, rapid boil toughens chicken proteins and can break up the pieces, while a gentle simmer keeps them tender and the broth clear. Cooking gently before adding the vegetables lets the chicken and later okra and rice finish at a matching pace.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, ham, parsley, celery, leek, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Turnipfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, ham, parsley, celery, leek, 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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