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Spare Rib Pot-pie

A pot pie made with spare ribs, potatoes, butter, and biscuit dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spare Rib Pot-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the ribs

  1. In a kettle, cover the spare ribs with hot water and stew until tender.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, then remove from the kettle.

Layer and cook

  1. Layer spare ribs in the bottom of the kettle, followed by a layer of potatoes and bits of butter.

  2. Add small squares of rolled baking powder dough, season again, and repeat layers until the kettle is two-thirds full.

  3. Add the cooking liquid from the spare ribs and more hot water if needed.

  4. Cover and boil for 30 to 45 minutes, adding hot water to prevent boiling dry.

  5. For the crust, roll out biscuit dough thinly, cut into squares, let rise, and place on top before cooking.

Serve

  1. If there isn't enough gravy after serving, mix hot water with flour and butter, season, and serve.

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

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Spare ribs
Become tender through stewing and supply the meat and drippings that flavour the dish.
Peeled potatoes
Absorb cooking liquid and add starch that thickens the gravy and gives body.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and helps the dough brown.
Baking powder dough
Rises and steams on top of the layers, forming dumplings that soak up the broth.

The step that matters

Keeping the kettle from boiling dry. The dough and potatoes absorb liquid as they cook, so too little liquid can scorch the bottom and leave the layers dry. Adding hot water during the boil keeps the liquid level steady and the layers moist.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Carrotfits less well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, 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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