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Hominy or Samp Porridge

A porridge made with hominy or samp, white beans, turkey carcass, and salt pork, simmered slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Turkey and pork work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 830 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Hominy or Samp Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the samp and white beans overnight.

Cook

  1. Combine the soaked samp, white beans, turkey carcass, and salt pork in a pot.

  2. Cook slowly all day, adding water as needed to keep covered.

  3. Remove the bones and season to taste.

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. Turkey + porktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together830 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Beans + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

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

  3. Beans + turkeytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Samp
Provides the starchy base that thickens the porridge as it cooks down.
White beans
Add body and creaminess, softening during the long slow cook.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the whole pot.
Turkey carcass
Releases collagen and flavor into the water, enriching the broth.

The step that matters

Keeping the pot covered with water during the long cook. Samp and beans absorb liquid and can scorch or dry out over a full day of cooking. Adding water as needed keeps the grains hydrated so they soften evenly and the porridge does not burn on the bottom.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pork):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Beansthe original
  3. Peasfits less well
  4. Lima beansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pork. 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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