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Hominy or Samp Porridge

A thick porridge made from soaked samp, white beans, turkey carcass, and salt pork, simmered slowly until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Turkey and pork work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 830 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Hominy or Samp Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the samp and white beans overnight.

Cook

  1. Combine the soaked samp, white beans, turkey carcass, and salt pork in a large pot.

  2. Cook slowly all day, adding water as needed to keep covered.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the bones and season to taste 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.

  1. Turkey + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together830 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

  3. Beans + turkeytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Samp
Provides the thick, starchy body that gives the porridge its texture as it cooks down.
White beans
Add body and creaminess as they soften and break down during the long simmer.
Turkey carcass
Releases collagen and flavor into the cooking liquid, enriching the broth.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the whole pot.

The step that matters

Keeping the pot covered with water during the long cook. Slow cooking for hours can dry out or scorch the bottom of the pot as the samp thickens. Adding water as needed keeps the liquid level steady so the grains cook evenly and do not stick or burn.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pork):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Peasfits less well
  4. Lima beansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pork. 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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