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New Orleans Gumbo

A hearty stew of chicken, beef, ham, onions, herbs, and spices simmered in a roux base, served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

New Orleans Gumbo

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gumbo

  1. Heat the lard in a soup pot until browned.

  2. Stir in the flour.

  3. Add the chicken pieces and cover to stew.

  4. Add the beef, ham, onions, thyme, parsley, marjoram, red pepper, and salt.

  5. Pour in the boiling water and boil briskly for two hours.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Stir in the feela.

Serve

  1. Serve with boiled rice in a bowl, pouring the gumbo over it.

  2. Accompany with light bread or toast.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 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

Flour
Thickens the gumbo as it cooks into the browned lard.
Chicken
Gives the gumbo its main meaty body and savory flavor during the long stew.
Beef
Adds savory depth and body to the broth during the two-hour boil.
Onions
Break down while simmering to add sweetness and body to the broth.
Lard
Fat that is browned at the start, adding richness and toasty flavor.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, chicken, beef, ham, thyme, parsley, marjoram):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, chicken, beef, ham, thyme, parsley, marjoram. 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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