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Ochka Gumbo

A tomato and okra-based gumbo with chicken, onions, and optional corn and lima beans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and lima beans share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 64 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ochka Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine tomatoes, okra, and water in a pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Fry the chicken pieces in a skillet until browned, adding plenty of gravy.

Make the gumbo

  1. Add the fried chicken to the pot with the okra and tomatoes.

  2. Stir in the chopped onions, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add corn and lima beans if desired.

  4. Simmer gently for several minutes.

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. Okra + lima beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Okra + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together715 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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

Okra
Releases a thickening starch that gives the gumbo its body.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and liquid that form the base of the stew.
Chicken
Browning adds savory flavor to the pot and gravy.

Swap the lima beans

The recipe marks lima beans as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, okra, chicken, pepper, corn, onion):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Lima beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, okra, chicken, pepper, corn, onion. 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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