Name: Gumbo Soup
Ingredients: 1 slice of bacon; 1 large onion; 2 quarts fresh tomatoes (or 1 large can); 1 quart okra (or 1 can); 1 teaspoon chopped parsley; 3 quarts hot broth; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; ½ teaspoon black pepper

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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Render the fat from the bacon in a stew kettle.
Drain the fat and fry the sliced onion until brown.
Peel and chop the fresh tomatoes and slice the okra.

Simmer

Add the tomatoes, okra, and parsley to the kettle.
Pour in the hot broth and let it cook slowly for three hours.
Season with salt and pepper before serving.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Okra + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together206 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together327 recipes

Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
Onion + okratop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together715 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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

Tomatoes: Break down during long cooking to add body, moisture and acidity to the broth.
Okra: Releases natural thickeners as it cooks slowly, giving the gumbo its body.
Onion: Browns in the bacon fat to add sweetness and savory depth to the base.
Hot broth: Forms the liquid base that the other ingredients cook and soften in.