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Soup

Ham-bone Soup

A hearty soup made with water, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, butter beans, okra, pepper, and ham bone.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Beans and okra share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 66 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Ham-bone Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a soup pot, combine the water, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, butter beans, okra, and pepper.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. One hour before serving, add the cooked ham-bone with most of the meat removed.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Beans + okratop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  3. Corn + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ham bone (in the method)
Adds smoky, savory flavor to the broth as it simmers.
Tomatoes
Provide acidity and body to the broth.
Potatoes
Soften as they cook and thicken the soup slightly with their starch.
Butter beans
Add creamy texture and body to the soup.
Corn
Adds natural sweetness and a fresh, tender bite.

The step that matters

Adding the ham bone one hour before serving. Ham bone flavor needs time to release into the broth, but adding it too early can overcook the vegetables and make the soup mushy. Timing it an hour before serving balances both.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, tomato, corn, butter, beans, 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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