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Soup

Philadelphia Pepper Pot

A hearty soup of tripe, calves' feet, pepper, onions, and potatoes simmered with herbs and finished with butter and egg balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme 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 ↓

Philadelphia Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Place tripe and calves' feet in a soup pot and cover with cold water.

  2. Add red pepper and boil until calves' feet are very tender.

  3. Remove meat, skim the liquid, and stir.

  4. Cut tripe into small pieces and return to the liquid.

  5. If needed, add boiling water to maintain liquid level.

Finish and serve

  1. Add marjoram, basil, thyme, onions, potatoes, and salt.

  2. When vegetables are almost tender, add butter rolled in flour.

  3. Drop in egg balls and boil for 15 more minutes.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Basil + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 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

Tripe
Provides the chewy meat body that the soup is built around.
Calves' feet
Release gelatin into the broth, giving it body and a silky mouthfeel.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour-coated butter thickens the broth gently and adds richness.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and add starch that lightly thickens the liquid.
Onions
Break down during simmering to add sweetness and savory depth.

The step that matters

Boil until calves' feet are very tender. Collagen in calves' feet converts to gelatin only after long, gentle simmering. Stopping early leaves the meat tough and the broth thin.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, marjoram, basil, thyme, potato, butter, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, marjoram, basil, thyme, potato, butter, 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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