Name: Pepper-pot Hotch-potch
Ingredients: 3 quarts water; seasonal vegetables (e.g., peas, French beans, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach in summer; beetroot, endive, carrots, turnips, celery, onions in winter); 2 lbs neck of mutton or 1 fowl and 1 lb pickled pork; 1 lobster or crab, cleared from the bones; salt to taste; cayenne to taste; small quantity of rice; small suet dumplings (optional); 1 cup flour and water (for thickening)

Why it works: Lettuce and endive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 284 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Pepper-pot Hotch-potch

Ingredients

3 quarts water
seasonal vegetables (e.g., peas, French beans, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach in summer; beetroot, endive, carrots, turnips, celery, onions in winter)
2 lbs neck of mutton or 1 fowl and 1 lb pickled pork
1 lobster or crab, cleared from the bones
salt to taste
cayenne to taste
small quantity of rice
small suet dumplings (optional)
1 cup flour and water (for thickening)

Directions

Prepare

In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil.
Add seasonal vegetables, cut small, and 2 lbs of neck of mutton or 1 fowl and 1 lb of pickled pork.
Skim the surface when it first boils.

Simmer and finish

Add a small quantity of rice with the meat.
Optionally, include small suet dumplings.
Half an hour before serving, add the lobster or crab.
Season with salt and cayenne to taste.
If any fat rises, skim it off and thicken with 1 cup of flour and water.

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.

Lettuce + endivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together284 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Lettuce + beetroottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together678 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Beetroot + endivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together132 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Spinach + endivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together60 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Lettuce + spinachtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together427 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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 and pickled pork: Provides the meat flavour and richness that give the broth its body.
Seasonal vegetables: Add sweetness, colour and body to the broth as they soften during simmering.
Lobster or crab: Adds delicate sweet seafood flavour to the soup.
Rice: Softens as it cooks and gives the soup a thicker, more substantial texture.
Flour and water: Thickens the broth, giving it a fuller body.

The step that matters

Adding the lobster or crab. Shellfish cooks quickly and becomes tough and rubbery if overcooked, so it is added only half an hour before serving.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, beetroot, endive, carrot):

Lentilsfits better
Chickpeafits better
Chestnutfits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, cauliflower, lettuce, spinach, beetroot, endive, carrot. 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.