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Okras and Tomatoes, Scalloped

A baked dish of okra and tomatoes in a butter‑flour‑milk sauce topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and tomato work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Okras and Tomatoes, Scalloped

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Cut the okra into small pieces.

  2. Halve the tomatoes.

  3. Mix the okra and tomatoes together with the breadcrumbs.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour and cook for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in the milk.

  4. Cook until boiling.

  5. Season to taste.

  6. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the okra and tomato mixture in well-buttered scallop shells.

  2. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.

  3. Add a little sauce.

  4. Cover with browned breadcrumbs.

  5. Top with 2 or 3 small pieces of butter.

  6. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

  7. Serve hot.

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 + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Okra + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together234 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Okra + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra
Forms the body of the dish and gives a soft, slightly thickening texture when cooked.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and a gentle acidity that balances the rich sauce.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce that binds the dish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding creaminess and body.

The step that matters

Cook the flour in the butter before adding the milk. Cooking the flour briefly in melted butter removes its raw taste and lets it thicken the milk evenly. Adding milk to raw flour without this step can leave lumps and a floury flavour.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (okra, butter, flour, milk, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, butter, flour, milk, 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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