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Philadelphia Famous Old Pepper Pot

A hearty stew of veal, tripe, potatoes, onions, and dough balls seasoned with pepper and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Philadelphia Famous Old Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the veal and tripe in separate large pots covered with water for at least 3 hours.

  2. Once cooled, skim off the grease and combine the liquids in one large pot.

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Cut the tripe and some veal into pieces the size of large dice.

  2. Peel and chop the potatoes and onions.

Make the dumplings and finish the soup

  1. Make a dough similar to shortening and form small balls the size of large peas.

  2. When the soup is boiling, drop in the dough balls a few at a time.

  3. Thicken the soup with flour paste and season with salt, pepper, pot-herbs, marjoram, and thyme.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Long simmering draws flavor and body from the bones into the broth.
Mixed tripe
Long cooking softens its tough texture until it becomes tender and chewy.
White potatoes
Their starch softens into the broth, adding body and substance.
Onions
Cooking softens their sharpness and adds sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Flour
Flour mixed into a paste thickens the liquid by swelling as it heats.

The step that matters

Drop in the dough balls a few at a time. Adding too many at once cools the boiling soup and can make the balls clump together. Keeping the liquid simmering lets each dough ball cook through and hold its shape.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, potato, flour, pepper, marjoram, thyme. 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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