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Soup

Philadelphia Pepper Pot

A hearty soup of tripe, calves’ feet, peppers, onions, potatoes, and meatballs simmered with herbs.

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 base

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

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

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

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

  5. If there isn’t enough liquid, add boiling water.

Add the vegetables and finish

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

  2. Boil the vegetables until almost tender.

  3. Add the butter rolled in flour and drop in the meatballs.

  4. Boil for an additional 15 minutes and 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
Becomes tender through long simmering, giving the soup its chewy body and substance.
Calves’ feet
Release gelatin into the liquid, giving the broth body and a silky mouthfeel.
Potatoes
Soften in the broth and thicken it slightly as their starch releases.
Butter rolled in flour
Flour thickens the broth and butter adds richness and fat to the soup.

The step that matters

Boil the calves’ feet until very tender. Collagen in the calves’ feet breaks down into gelatin only with long, steady simmering. Stopping early leaves the broth thin and the connective tissue tough.

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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