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Pepper Pot

A stew of tripe, veal knuckle, potatoes, and dumplings seasoned with pepper and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Boil the tripe and knuckle of veal separately all day.

  2. Strain the tripe liquor into the veal liquor and remove the fat.

Season and finish

  1. Season the mixture with coarse sea salt, black pepper, sweet marjoram, pot-herbs, and finely chopped potatoes.

  2. Drop in flour balls or dumplings and let boil for five minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Marjoram + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Marjoram + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Tripe
Gives the soup its body and rich, gelatinous texture as it simmers.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin and depth, giving the broth a fuller, silkier mouthfeel.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth slightly as they soften and add starchy body.
Flour dumplings
Absorb broth and set into soft, tender pieces that add substance.

The step that matters

Removing the fat from the broth. Fat that is not skimmed off after straining will float and make the soup greasy, since its fat separates and rises as the liquid cools and settles.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, marjoram, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, marjoram, 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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