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Pepper Pot

A stew of tripe, veal knuckle, potatoes, and dumplings seasoned with pepper and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the tripe and knuckle of veal separately all day.

  2. Strain the tripe liquid into the veal liquid and remove the fat.

Season and finish

  1. Season the mixture with salt, pepper, sweet marjoram, pot herbs, and finely chopped potatoes.

  2. Drop in flour balls or dumplings and boil for five minutes.

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. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Marjoram + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Tripe
Gives the soup its body and rich, gelatinous texture as it cooks slowly.
Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and flavor into the liquid, giving the broth depth and body.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth slightly as they break down and add starch and mild sweetness.
Flour balls or dumplings
Absorb broth while cooking, turning soft and filling the soup with a bready texture.

The step that matters

Removing the fat after straining. Fat that is left on the broth stays greasy and can make the soup taste heavy, so skimming it off after straining matters for a clean, balanced result.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, marjoram, flour):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, marjoram, flour. 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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