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Pepper Pot

A hearty stew of mutton or fowl, pickled pork, seasonal vegetables, lobster or crab, rice, and a peppery broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 427 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil.

  2. Add seasonal vegetables, 2 lb of neck of mutton or 1 fowl, and 1 lb of pickled pork.

  3. Skim the surface when it first boils, then simmer until the meat is tender.

  4. Add a small quantity of rice with the meat.

Finish and serve

  1. Half an hour before serving, add a shelled lobster or crab.

  2. Season with salt and cayenne to taste.

  3. If any fat rises, skim it off and thicken the broth with a little flour before serving.

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. Lettuce + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Lettuce + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Spinach + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together320 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton or fowl
Provides meat and rich flavour as the broth simmers and gelatin softens.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savoury depth and fat to the broth.
Lobster or crab
Adds sweet seafood flavour and tender meat added late so it does not overcook.
Rice
Swells as it cooks, adding body and thickening the soup.
Flour
Thickens the broth so it has a fuller, smoother body.

The step that matters

Add the lobster or crab half an hour before serving. Shellfish proteins toughen quickly when overcooked, so adding it late keeps the meat tender while it still flavours the broth.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pork, lettuce, spinach, carrot, turnip, celery):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pork, lettuce, spinach, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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