Skip to main content
Main

Pepper-pot

A Caribbean stew of mutton or fowl, pickled pork, lobster or crab, rice, and spices.

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

Why it works: Pork and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Pepper-pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut carrots, turnips, celery, and onions small.

Make the pot

  1. Stew the mutton or fowl and pickled pork in water until tender.

  2. Skim the surface when it first boils.

  3. Add rice with the meat if desired.

  4. Half an hour before serving, add the shelled lobster or crab.

  5. Season with salt and Cayenne pepper.

  6. If fat rises, skim it off and add water mixed with flour.

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. Pork + ricetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  3. Mutton + porktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,239 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

  4. Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,442 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

Mutton or fowl
Provides the main meat flavour and body as it stews until tender.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savoury depth to the broth during the long stew.
Rice
Swells as it cooks, adding body and thickening the broth.
Lobster or crab
Contributes sweet shellfish flavour and tender texture when added near the end.
Flour
Mixed with water and stirred in to thicken the liquid slightly.

The step that matters

Add the lobster or crab half an hour before serving. Shellfish cooks quickly and turns rubbery and dry if boiled too long, so it is added late, only enough to heat through and turn opaque.

“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 recipesLobster SauceLobster Sauce174 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipesLobster CroquettesLobster Croquettes99 recipes