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A Pepper-pot, to Be Served in a Tureen

A spicy soup of mutton or fowl, pickled pork, vegetables, and lobster or crab, 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

  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 the meat is tender.

Finish the soup

  1. Stir in a small quantity of rice with the meat.

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

  3. Season with salt and Cayenne pepper to taste.

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

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 rich meat flavour and gelatin that gives the broth body as it simmers.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savoury depth and fat that enriches the broth.
Lobster or crab
Adds sweet seafood flavour and tender pieces to the finished soup.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and softens, thickening the soup slightly as it cooks.
Flour
Starch that thickens the liquid when mixed with water and stirred in.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and water mixture. Flour must be mixed smoothly with cold water before being stirred into hot soup; added dry or lumpy, it clumps and never thickens evenly. Starch swells and thickens only when the liquid is simmering.

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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