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Sancoche

Sancoche is a Trinidadian soup made with salted pork, beef, peas, coconut milk, and root vegetables.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,019 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Time1 hour

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Parboil the pigtail pieces for about 15 minutes to get rid of the excess salt, otherwise your soup will turn out too salty.

  2. In a large pot, place beef cubes and pigtail and cover with water.

  3. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat and cook for 1 hour.

Make the soup

  1. Add split peas, chopped onion, celery, thyme, coconut milk, salt and black pepper, bouillon cube and continue to cook until split peas are dissolved.

  2. Add all ground provisions and the whole hot pepper (do not burst, or soup will taste too hot).

  3. Add enough water to cover ingredients and cook for another 30 mins.

  4. Prepare dumplings and add to soup.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

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

  2. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,188 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Beef + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,051 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Salted pigtail
Adds savory, salty flavor and body to the broth.
Stewing beef
Adds meaty flavor and richness to the broth as it simmers.
Dried split peas
Break down during cooking to thicken the soup and give it body.
Coconut milk
Adds fat and creaminess, softening the broth's texture.
Ground provisions
Starchy roots and tubers thicken the soup and add substance.

The step that matters

Parboil the pigtail. Parboiling draws out excess salt from the cured pork, so the soup does not end up too salty once the broth reduces and the bouillon and seasoning are added.

Flavor stand-ins for the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, peas, onion, celery, thyme, milk, potato):

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Mangoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, peas, onion, celery, thyme, milk, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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