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Gumbo Soup

A hearty beef gumbo with tomatoes, potatoes, corn, lima beans, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Gumbo Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, bring 2 gallons of cold water to a boil.

  2. Add 3 pounds of fresh beef and 1 sliced onion.

  3. Simmer for about 2 hours.

  4. Then add 1 pint of stewed tomatoes, 1 pint of sliced gumbo, 1 pint of sliced potatoes, corn from 2 ears, and ½ pint of Lima beans.

  5. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, 1 small pod of pepper, and 1 teaspoon of sugar.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Corn + lima beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

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

  3. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh beef
Provides the main meat flavor and body to the broth as it simmers.
Stewed tomatoes
Add acidity and sweetness that give the broth its color and depth.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, lightly thickening the broth and adding body.
Lima beans
Add starch and a creamy texture that thickens the stew slightly.

Swap the lima beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, tomato, potato, corn, pepper, sugar):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Sesamefits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, tomato, potato, corn, pepper, sugar. 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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