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Pepper Pot

A hearty soup made with calves' feet, tripe, potatoes, onions, herbs, and dumplings, seasoned with cayenne pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Clean the calves' feet and place them in a pot with the tripe and water.

  2. Add cayenne pepper and cover the pot.

  3. Boil until tender.

  4. Strain the liquid.

Finish and serve

  1. Cut the tripe into small pieces.

  2. Return the tripe to the liquid and add salt, onions, potatoes, marjoram, parsley, thyme, and dumplings.

  3. 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' feet
Release gelatin into the broth, giving it body and a rich mouthfeel.
Tripe
Provides a chewy texture that softens during long simmering.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the broth slightly and makes the soup more filling.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook into the broth.
Butter and flour dumplings
Cook into soft, tender pieces that absorb broth and add richness.

The step that matters

Boil until tender. Tripe and calves' feet are tough connective tissue. They need a long, gentle simmer to break down collagen into gelatin; a hard rolling boil can toughen meat and cloud the broth.

Swap the onion

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

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

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