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Pepper Pot

A hearty soup of tripe, ox feet, vegetables, and dumplings flavored with pepper and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Place the tripe and ox feet in a large pot and cover with water.

  2. Add whole pepper and a little coarse sea salt.

  3. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce to a simmer and cover.

  4. Cook until the tripe is tender and the ox feet are falling apart.

  5. Remove the meat, skim the liquid, and strain it.

Assemble and finish

  1. Cut the tripe into small pieces and return it to the pot with the strained liquid.

  2. Add chopped herbs, sliced onions, and sliced potatoes.

  3. Make small dumplings with flour and butter, season vegetables with pepper and salt, and add to the pot.

  4. Pour in enough boiling water to cover the ingredients without diluting the flavor.

  5. Add a large piece of butter rolled in flour and the dumplings.

  6. Boil until everything is thoroughly cooked, then serve in a tureen.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tripe
Becomes tender through long simmering, giving the soup its main body and chewy texture.
Ox feet
Release gelatin into the cooking liquid, adding body and a rich mouthfeel to the broth.
Potatoes
Soften during boiling and thicken the broth slightly as their starch leaches out.
Butter rolled in flour
Coats the flour and melts into the broth, thickening it and adding richness.
Flour
Forms the dumplings and, with butter, helps bind and thicken the soup.

The step that matters

Pour in boiling water and keep the soup at a boil until cooked. Adding cold water would drop the pot's temperature and slow cooking, and the flour-butter thickener needs sustained heat to hydrate and set smoothly. Boiling until everything is thoroughly cooked ensures the dumplings and potatoes are done and the broth is properly thickened.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, potato, flour, 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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