Name: Pepper Pot
Ingredients: fish flesh; chicken or other fowl (equal parts to fish); 1 pound beef or mutton, cut into very small pieces; water (enough to cover ingredients); 1 red pepper; 1 large onion, sliced; salt to taste; sliced potatoes; small dumplings (made of flour and butter)

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

Combine fish flesh and chicken or other fowl in a soup pot in nearly equal parts.
Add 1 pound of beef or mutton and cover with enough water.
Add 1 red pepper and boil until tender.
Skim the liquid and add boiling water if necessary.
Stir in 1 sliced onion and salt to taste.
Add sliced potatoes and small dumplings.
Boil until all ingredients are tender.

Serve

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,148 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,756 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 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

Fish flesh: Cooks down into the broth, giving it a rich, savoury body.
Chicken or other fowl: Adds meaty flavour and body to the broth as it simmers.
Beef or mutton: Long simmering softens its fibres and adds depth and richness to the soup.
Red pepper: Supplies the characteristic warm heat and aroma of the soup.
Potatoes: Thicken the broth slightly as their starch releases during boiling.
Flour and butter dumplings: Absorb broth while cooking, becoming soft and tender with a rich, buttery flavour.

The step that matters

Skim the liquid. Foam and fat rise to the surface while the meats boil. Skimming removes them, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, chicken, beef, pepper, potato, flour, butter):

Onionthe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Chivefits about as well
Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, chicken, beef, pepper, potato, flour, butter. 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.