Skip to main content
Main

Pepper-pot

A stew of fish, meat, and fowl simmered with rice, vegetables, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 and simmer

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

  2. Add the rice and chopped vegetables.

  3. Pour enough water to cover the ingredients and simmer slowly.

  4. Skim off any foam that forms on the surface.

Season and serve

  1. 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

Mutton or beef
Provides meaty flavor and body to the broth as it simmers slowly.
Fish
Adds savory depth and seafood flavor to the simmered broth.
Chicken
Contributes rich savory flavor and body to the broth.
Rice
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during simmering.
Assorted vegetables
Add sweetness, aroma, and mild body to the simmered broth.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam. Foam forms from proteins and impurities rising to the surface; removing it keeps the broth clear and prevents a scummy, off-flavored result.

“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.

More pepper pot recipes

Soup 50Stew 8Philadelphia 8Old 3 See all 31 →

You might also like

Mutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipes