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Okra and Tomatoes Soup

A hearty soup made with okra, tomatoes, ham or bacon, celery, onion, and stock, finished with optional egg yolks and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Okra and Tomatoes Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Start the base

  1. Combine ham, celery, onion, tomato ketchup, herbs, and seasoning in a pan.

  2. Cook slowly, covered, for 20 minutes.

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

  4. Remove the ham.

Add okra and thicken

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

  2. Mix the cornflour with cold stock to a paste.

  3. Stir the cornflour paste into the soup along with more salt and pepper.

  4. Bring to a boil.

Finish

  1. Add the minced meat.

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

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

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

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

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cornflour
Thickens the soup into a smooth body as its starch swells with heat.
Egg yolks
Add richness and further thicken the soup gently when heated.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer, smoother mouthfeel.
Tomato ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity that gives the soup its tomato flavour.
Ham or bacon
Contributes savoury, salty fat that flavours the stock base.

The step that matters

Add egg yolks and cream just before serving. Egg yolks can curdle and cream can split if the soup is boiled after they go in, so keep it hot but never at a boil.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, celery, tomato, ketchup, pepper, meat, egg. 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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