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Okra Gumbo

A savory stew of bacon, butter, onion, tomatoes, corn, rice, chicken stock, okra, and optional meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Cut bacon into small pieces and fry in a skillet.

  2. Add butter and minced onion; fry until brown.

Build the gumbo

  1. Stir in chopped tomatoes and fine corn.

  2. Add boiled rice and chicken stock; season with salt and pepper.

  3. Incorporate bits of chicken, ham, or cold steak, along with the steamed okra.

  4. Let the mixture simmer for about an hour.

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. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Corn + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Rice + okratop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together250 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
Its natural mucilage thickens the broth and gives gumbo its characteristic body.
Bacon
Rendered fat adds savoury, smoky flavour to the pan that carries through the dish.
Tomatoes
Acidity and moisture brighten the broth and help build a rich, cohesive stew.
Boiled rice
Starch absorbs liquid and adds bulk, softening slightly and thickening the stew.
Onion
Sweetness develops as it browns, adding depth to the base flavour.

The step that matters

Browning the onion in butter and bacon fat. Frying the onion until it is properly brown caramelises its sugars, building the deep savoury base the whole gumbo depends on. Pale onion gives a flat, thin flavour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, tomato, corn, rice, chicken, okra, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, corn, rice, chicken, okra, 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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