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Pepper-pot

A stew of fish, meat, fowl, and vegetables seasoned with cayenne pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Pepper-pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the mutton or beef, fish, lobster, and chicken into small pieces.

  2. Add the rice and vegetables to the pot.

  3. Pour in enough water to cover the ingredients.

Cook and season

  1. Simmer slowly and skim off any foam.

  2. Once cooked, season with cayenne pepper and coarse sea salt 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. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Fish + meattop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together479 recipes

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

  4. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

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

  5. Fish + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean mutton or beef
Provides the main meat flavour and body to the stew as it simmers.
Chicken
Adds savoury meat flavour and body to the broth as it cooks.
Fish
Adds savoury, delicate flavour and tender pieces to the pot.
Rice
Thickens the liquid slightly as its starch releases during simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam while simmering. Foam is coagulated protein and impurities rising from the meat and fish. Skimming it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Simmering gently rather than boiling hard keeps the meat tender instead of tough and stringy.

“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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