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Pepper Pot

A tripe stew with potatoes, spices, and dumplings, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 125 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tripe

  1. Soak the tripe in salt water for 1–2 hours.

  2. Put the tripe in a pot with 6 quarts of water, salt, and red pepper.

  3. Boil until tender, about all day.

  4. Leave the tripe in the water overnight, out of the pot.

  5. Cut the tripe into small pieces.

  6. Dust with flour.

Simmer and finish

  1. Return to the reheated liquid.

  2. Add the potatoes, cloves, allspice, marjoram, savory, and basil.

  3. Boil for 2 hours.

  4. About 30 minutes before serving, add dumplings made from flour, shortening, salt, and water, shaped like marbles.

  5. Thicken the soup with butter and flour rubbed together until it reaches the consistency of rich cream.

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 + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  4. Allspice + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together52 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

Tripe
Forms the main body of the soup and becomes tender through long boiling.
Flour
Dusted on the tripe and used with butter to thicken the soup into a creamy consistency.
Butter
Rubbed with flour to make a roux that thickens the soup and adds richness.
Potatoes
Break down slightly during simmering, adding body and starch to the broth.
Summer savory
Adds a herbal, peppery aroma to the broth.
Sweet marjoram
Adds a sweet, floral herbal aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Thickening the soup with butter and flour. Flour must be rubbed into butter fully before stirring into the hot liquid; otherwise it clumps. Starch granules swell as the mixture heats, so the soup thickens to a smooth, creamy texture only when the roux is well blended and simmered.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, clove, allspice, marjoram, summer savory, basil, flour):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, allspice, marjoram, summer savory, basil, 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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