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A Pepper-pot, to Be Served in a Tureen

A hearty stew of mutton or fowl with vegetables, pickled pork, lobster or crab, rice, and pepper, served in a tureen.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

A Pepper-pot, to Be Served in a Tureen

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

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

  2. Add chopped seasonal vegetables and the meat (mutton or fowl) along with pickled pork.

  3. Skim the surface when it first boils, then reduce heat and simmer until tender.

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

Finish and season

  1. Half an hour before serving, add the cleaned lobster or crab.

  2. Season with salt and Cayenne pepper to taste.

  3. If fat rises, skim it off and mix ½ cup of water with a little flour to thicken the broth.

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

Mutton or fowl
Gives the soup its meaty body and rich, savory flavor as it simmers.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savory depth to the broth as it cooks down.
Flour
Thickens the broth, giving it a fuller, silkier body.
Rice
Adds starch that lightly thickens the broth and softens as it cooks.
Lobster or crab
Adds sweet shellfish flavor to the broth when added near the end.

The step that matters

Skimming fat and thickening the broth. Fat that rises during simmering can make the broth greasy, so skimming it off keeps the texture clean. Flour mixed with cold water into a smooth slurry before adding thickens evenly without lumps.

Swap the peas

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

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

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