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Soup

Okra and Tomato Soup

A savory soup made with ham or bacon, celery, onion, tomato ketchup, herbs, stock, okra, cornflour, and optional egg yolks and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and okra 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 ↓

Okra and Tomato Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. In a pan, combine the ham, celery, onion, tomato ketchup, herbs, and seasoning.

  2. Cook slowly, covered, for 20 minutes.

  3. Add the stock, bring to a boil, and skim well.

  4. Remove the ham.

  5. Add the okra and cook slowly for 30 minutes, skimming often.

Thicken and finish

  1. Mix the cornflour with cold stock to form a paste, then stir it into the soup along with more salt and pepper.

  2. Bring to a boil, then add the minced meat, ensuring it is free from fat and gristle.

  3. Cover and heat through for 10 minutes without boiling again.

  4. For a richer soup, add egg yolks and cream just before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Onion + okratop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together715 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Celery + okratop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Okra
Releases natural thickening as it cooks slowly, giving the soup body.
Cornflour
Starch that thickens the soup into a smooth, lightly body-rich texture when heated.
Tomato ketchup
Adds tomato flavour, sweetness and acidity to the soup base.
Minced beef or mutton
Adds meaty flavour and substance to the finished soup.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup with fat and help give a richer, silkier texture.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and softer flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the cornflour paste. Starch must be mixed smoothly into cold liquid first, then heated, so it thickens evenly. Added dry or lumpy, it clumps and leaves the soup uneven.

Swap the okra

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, celery, onion, tomato, ketchup, pepper, beef):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Okrathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, celery, onion, tomato, ketchup, pepper, beef. 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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