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Pepper Pot

A hearty soup of tripe or calf brains, rice, veal bones, tomatoes, onions, green peppers, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chopped onions and green peppers with the butter and brown for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the diced tripe (or calf brains), raw rice, white broth (or hot water), veal bones, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Add the cut tomatoes and let boil for 35 minutes longer.

  5. Remove the bones and serve.

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. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Onions
Browned in butter to build a sweet, savory base for the soup.
Green peppers
Browned with the onions to add aroma and a slightly sharp, vegetal flavor.
Tripe or calf brains
Provides the rich, tender meat that gives the soup its body.
Raw rice
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fresh flavor, brightening the broth.

The step that matters

Browning the onions and green peppers. Browning caramelizes their natural sugars and builds deep flavor for the whole soup. Pale, under-browned vegetables leave the broth tasting flat, so color them well before adding liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, rice, veal, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, rice, veal, tomato. 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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