Skip to main content
Main

Pepper Pot

A hearty stew of tripe and ox feet flavored with pepper, herbs, onions, potatoes, and dumplings.

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

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pepper Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Combine tripe, ox feet, and enough water to cover them in a large pot.

  2. Add whole pepper and a little coarse sea salt.

  3. Place the pot over the fire early in the morning.

  4. Let it boil slowly, covered.

  5. Once the tripe is tender and the ox feet are falling apart, remove them.

  6. Strain the liquid.

Make the pepper pot

  1. Cut the tripe into small pieces.

  2. Return the tripe to the pot with the strained liquid.

  3. Add chopped sweet herbs, sliced onions, and sliced potatoes.

  4. Make small dumplings with flour and butter.

  5. Season the vegetables with pepper and salt.

  6. Add the dumplings to the pot.

  7. Pour in boiling water to keep the ingredients covered without diluting the flavor.

  8. Add a large piece of butter rolled in flour.

  9. Add the dumplings.

  10. Boil until everything is thoroughly cooked.

Serve

  1. Serve in a tureen.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Tripe
Provides the main body and chewy texture once slowly simmered until tender.
Ox feet
Releases gelatin into the broth, giving it body and a rich mouthfeel.
Potatoes
Thicken the broth slightly as they soften and add starchy bulk.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they cook into the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the dumplings and seasons the dish.

The step that matters

Boil until everything is thoroughly cooked. Dumplings and vegetables need enough time in simmering liquid to cook through; underdone flour dough turns gummy and raw starch tastes floury, while a gentle, steady boil keeps tripe tender without toughening it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, potato, flour, butter):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, potato, flour, butter. 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.

More pepper pot recipes

Soup 50Stew 8Philadelphia 8Old 3 See all 31 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipesSweet Potato CroquettesSweet Potato Croquettes53 recipes