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Soup

Southern Okra Soup

A chicken-based soup with okra, tomatoes, and cayenne pepper, simmered slowly for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Okra and tomato 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 ↓

Southern Okra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine the chicken and cold water in a soup pot.

  2. Add the okra and salt.

  3. Scald and skin the tomatoes.

  4. Chop the tomatoes finely.

Simmer

  1. Let it simmer slowly for 3 hours.

  2. Skim constantly.

  3. Stir the tomatoes into the soup around noon.

  4. Continue to simmer until 2 o'clock.

Notes on cookware

  1. Avoid using an iron spoon to prevent discoloring the okra.

  2. Use a tinned or porcelain pot for cooking.

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. Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

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

  3. Okra + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together250 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Green okra
Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it a silky body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a fresh, savory flavor to the broth.
Chicken
Flavors the broth and provides the meat for the soup.

The step that matters

Avoid an iron spoon and iron pot. Okra contains compounds that react with iron, which can darken the okra and discolor the soup. Tinned or porcelain cookware and a non-iron spoon keep the color clear.

Swap the okra

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, pepper, rice. 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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