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Gumbo Fill

A hearty soup with chicken, onions, herbs, spices, oysters, and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Gumbo Fill

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Heat a soup pot and add the lard.

  2. Once hot, add the onions and fry until light brown.

  3. Add the chicken pieces and fry until light brown.

  4. Stir in parsley, celery, bay leaves, diced ham, mace, cloves, cayenne pepper, and Tabasco sauce.

  5. Add enough water for the soup and let it cook together for two hours.

Finish and serve

  1. When ready to serve, add the oysters and fill until it ropes.

  2. Serve immediately with rice and do not cover the tureen.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lard
Fat that carries the heat and starts the browning of the onions and chicken.
Onions
Frying until light brown builds sweetness and a deeper savory base for the soup.
Chicken
Browning the pieces adds savory flavor, and simmering gives the soup its main body.
Oysters
Added at the end, they cook briefly and add a briny, savory flavor.
Rice
Served with the soup, it adds starch and bulk to each bowl.

The step that matters

Add the oysters at the end. Oysters cook quickly and turn tough and shrink if they simmer for long. Adding them just before serving keeps them tender and plump.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, chicken, parsley, celery, ham, clove, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, chicken, parsley, celery, ham, clove, 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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