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Pepper-pot

A stew of mutton, pickled pork, onions, celery, lobster or crab, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pepper-pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onions and celery very small.

Stew

  1. Stew them with the mutton and pickled pork until tender.

  2. Half an hour before serving, remove the shell from the lobster or crab and add it to the stew.

Season and serve

  1. Season with coarse sea salt and Cayenne pepper.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of mutton
Long stewing breaks down its connective tissue, making the meat tender and the broth rich.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savory flavor and fat that enrich the broth.
Onions
Cook down to add sweetness and a savory aromatic base.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, vegetal flavor to the stewing liquid.
Lobster or crab
Adds sweet seafood flavor and tender, delicate meat to the stew.

The step that matters

Adding the lobster or crab late. Shellfish proteins toughen and turn rubbery when overcooked. Adding the shell-free meat half an hour before serving lets it heat through while staying tender.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pork, onion, lobster, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pork, onion, lobster, pepper. 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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