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Hot Pot

A hearty soup of beef, crab, pork, herbs, asparagus, and crackers, simmered and served with lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Hot Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, boil the beef, herbs, and onion in the water for three hours over low heat.

  2. Cool the pot to allow the fat to rise, then skim off the fat.

  3. Set aside half of the broth with the meat for another day.

  4. Strain the remaining broth back into the pot.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the meat from the boiled crabs, cut into pieces, and the diced pork.

  2. Add the asparagus tops and season well.

  3. Stew gently for 30 minutes.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a tureen, prepare the Boston crackers by splitting them and soaking in boiling water for 5 minutes, then drain and butter them.

  2. Pour the soup over the crackers, cover, and serve, adding the lemon juice just before serving.

  3. Serve with sliced lemon on the side.

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. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Asparagus + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together704 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + asparagustop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,212 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

Beef
Breaks down over long simmering to give the broth its body and meaty flavour.
Salt pork
Renders fat and seasons the broth with savoury richness.
Crabs
Their meat adds sweetness and a delicate seafood flavour to the soup.
Asparagus
Adds a fresh, grassy note and a tender vegetable texture.
Boston crackers
Soak up the hot broth, becoming soft and absorbing its flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth just before serving.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat after cooling. Fat that stays in the broth turns greasy and can coat the mouth. Chilling lets the fat rise and solidify on the surface so it lifts off cleanly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, crab, pork, onion, asparagus, pepper, butter):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, crab, pork, onion, asparagus, pepper, 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.

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