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Gumbo Filk

A stew of chicken, ham, tomatoes, parsley, oysters, and file powder served over boiled rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Gumbo Filk

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken and vegetables

  1. In a soup pot, heat ½ cup of hot water.

  2. Fry the chicken pieces until light brown, then add them to the pot.

  3. Fry the onion, ham, tomatoes, and parsley together, then add to the chicken.

Simmer and season

  1. Cook slowly for 6 hours.

  2. Remove some chicken breast pieces and place them in a tureen.

  3. Strain the soup, then add salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

  4. Stir in enough file powder to thicken the gumbo.

Add oysters and serve

  1. Plump the oysters by heating them with butter, then add to the tureen.

  2. Pour the gumbo over the oysters and chicken, and serve immediately with boiled rice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main meat and flavour that the broth is built on.
Oysters
Add briny flavour and a tender texture when plumped in butter before serving.
File powder
Thickens the gumbo as it is stirred in, giving it body.
Ham
Adds smoky, savoury depth to the frying base.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic base flavour when fried.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that round out the broth.

The step that matters

Stirring in the file powder. File powder thickens quickly and can turn stringy or clumpy if boiled for long, so it is best stirred in off the heat or at a low simmer, just until the gumbo thickens.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, ham, tomato, pepper, oyster, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, ham, tomato, pepper, oyster, butter. 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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