Why it works: Onion and okra match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 715 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Okra Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Fry the chicken pieces and bacon until light brown.
Pour boiling water over the chicken and bacon.
Add the onion and tied sweet herbs.
Simmer gently for 3.5 hours.
Strain the liquid and remove the fat.
Add the ham and chicken pieces back into the liquid.
Stir in the okra and rice.
Boil for 30 minutes.
Just before serving, add the oysters and their juice.
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.
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Onion + okratop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together715 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Okra + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together250 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, okra, rice, oyster):
- Tomatofits better
- Cucumberfits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, okra, rice, oyster. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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