![]() A Scene in the Philadelphia Market (1811) by John Lewis Krimmel The scene depicts a pepper pot street vendor in Philadelphia serving soup from a pot to customers. [1] | |
Type | Soup/ Stew |
---|---|
Place of origin | United States |
Region or state | Philadelphia |
Main ingredients | Beef tripe, vegetables, pepper, other seasonings |
Pepper Pot is a thick stew of beef tripe, vegetables, pepper and other seasonings. The soup was first made in West Africa and the Caribbean before being brought to North America through slave trade and made into a distinctively Philadelphian dish by colonial Black women during the nineteenth century.
It was one of the first street foods in the United States, sold by so-called "Pepper Pot women", and was at one point the symbolic food of the city of Philadelphia, much like the cheesesteak is today. [2]
Pepper Pot shares the same name as soups in the Caribbean but is credited specifically to Black Philadelphians.
According to Catherine Clinton, "steaming peppery pot was served right on the street---a dish of vegetables, meat, and cassava, imported by West Indians". [3] Historians suggest that the soup's origin can be traced from the West Indies to the Atlantic Coast of North America, following the path of slave trade. [4]
There are many versions and variations of Peppery Pot stew, though many include dumplings. The traditional version associated with Philadelphia specifically do have some ingredients in common: "a variety of peppers, spices, root vegetables, beef tripe, herbs, and leafy greens." [4] These ingredients came specifically from the Africans and Caribbeans living in the city at the time of its origin. Some chefs say that it's very similar to gumbo, but does not have okra. According to Jessica B. Harris, a renowned scholar on Black diasporic cuisines, they might share similarities because they "likely share the same food "ancestors,” like Senegalese soupe kandia and Beninese sauce feuille." [4]
William Woys Weaver, a historian of Philadelphia-area food, has noted that versions of the dish in the city can be traced as far back as the 1600s. Back then the ingredient list looked a little different: "Black women would make stock, then cook turtles, fish, veal, collards, cassava, plantains, and spices together, often served with West African fufu or moussa dumplings." [4]
The stew was known specifically for being sold on the street and "Pepper pot women" were among the Philadelphia's earliest street vendors, using 'street cries' to grab customer's attention. [4] In a children's book from 1810 titled The Cries of Philadelphia, the scene is described in detail:
Strangers who visit the city, cannot but be amused with the cries of the numerous black women who sit in the market house and at the corners, selling a soup which they call pepperpot. It is made chiefly of tripe, ox-feet, and other cheap animal substances, with a portion of spice. It is sold very cheap, so that a hungry man may get a hearty meal for a few cents...and excepting to weak stomachs, it is a very pleasant feast. [5]
Even as the ingredients evolved over time, historians say that the inclusion of beef tripe is what makes the stew distinctively Philadelphia Pepper Pot. [4] Other historians also say that a spicy capsicum pepper is another requirement; bell peppers would not have been used. [5]
The origins of the stew are steeped in legend, with one story attributing the dish to Christopher Ludwick, baker general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. [6] According to this story, during the harsh winter of 1777–1778, farmers near Valley Forge sold food to the British rather than accepting the weak continental currency. The Continental Army survived on soup made of tripe, vegetables, and whatever else they could find. [7] The story has been found to be almost certainly untrue, though it helped make the soup a symbol of the city. [2]
In Philadelphia, legend made Pepper Pot soup popular and easy to find around the city. It was sold as street food and in taverns because it was known as the stew which kept George Washington's troops alive during that cold winter. Its popularity meant that it became the symbolic food of the city, "It was a dish to try if you were an out-of-towner. It was a hangover cure. Diners treated the soup sort of how we treat cheesesteaks these days." [4]
Once a popular staple of the city, Philadelphia Pepper Pot soup disappeared and became a rarity. A canned condensed Pepper Pot soup was available from the Campbell Soup Company for more than a century, from 1899 until it was discontinued in 2010. [8] A Campbell's representative gave "changing consumer tastes" as the reason for its demise.
A lasting record of Pepper Pot's not-so-distant popularity is one of Andy Warhol's iconic Campbell Soup's works. Created by Warhol in 1962, it features the Pepper Pot variety and sold in 2006 for $12 million. In 1968, the Philadelphia chapter of the Public Relations Society of America chose the Pepper Pot as the symbol for its annual awards. [9]
By the 1990s, however, Pepper Pot was already losing popularity in restaurants and residential kitchens. The Campbell's soup was described as the canned version of "a street food that has retreated to the factory production line." [5]
Although it is difficult to find restaurants serving Philadelphia Pepper Pot soup today, there are cooks in the United States who are working to restore its popularity. Noted Philadelphia chef Omar Tate, who focuses on Black heritage cooking, added Pepper Pot to his restaurant's menu. He has noted the difficulty of bringing back a dish when there are so few people to ask if it tastes as they remember it. [4]
"Pepperpot" not only describes a stew, but according to a book from 1992, it is also a dialect synonym for hodgepodge or topsy-turvy in the Middle Atlantic states. [5]
Tripe is a type of edible lining from the stomachs of various farm animals. Most tripe is from cattle, pigs and sheep.
Offal, also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the internal organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, and these lists of organs vary with culture and region, but usually exclude skeletal muscle. Offal may also refer to the by-products of milled grains, such as corn or wheat.
Peasant foods are dishes eaten by peasants, made from accessible and inexpensive ingredients.
Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine is the typical and traditional fare of the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Sancocho is a traditional stew in Canarian cuisine and several Latin American cuisines. Latin variations represent popular national dishes in Dominican Republic, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Ecuador, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. It usually consists of large pieces of meat, tubers and vegetables served in a broth.
Sopa de mondongo is a soup made from diced tripe slow-cooked with vegetables such as bell peppers, onions, carrots, cabbage, celery, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic or root vegetables. The dish is generally prepared in former Spanish colonies in Latin America, Caribbean, and in the Philippines.
Ghanaian cuisine refers to the meals of the Ghanaian people. The main dishes of Ghana are centered around starchy staple foods, accompanied by either sauce or soup as well as a source of protein. The primary ingredients for the vast majority of soups and stews are tomatoes, hot peppers, and onions. As a result of these main ingredients, most Ghanaian soups and stews appear red or orange.
Pepperpot or pepper pot may refer to:
Motsunabe (もつ鍋) is a type of nabemono in Japanese cuisine, which is made from beef or pork tripe or other offal. It is a popular stew made with guts portions of various types of meat, prepared in a conventional kitchen cooking pot or a special Japanese nabe pot (nabe). When it is cooked, it is filled with soup, prepared beef or pork offal and boiled for a while; cabbage and garlic chives are added. The base soup is usually soy sauce with garlic and chili pepper, or miso. Champon noodles are often put into the pot and boiled to complete the dish. The offal used in motsunabe is mostly beef intestines, but various kinds of offal can be used.
West African cuisine encompasses a diverse range of foods that are split between its 16 countries. In West Africa, many families grow and raise their own food, and within each there is a division of labor. Indigenous foods consist of a number of plant species and animals, and are important to those whose lifestyle depends on farming and hunting.
Javanese cuisine is the cuisine of Javanese people, a major ethnic group in Indonesia, more precisely the province of Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.
Tunisian cuisine, the cuisine of Tunisia, consists of the cooking traditions, ingredients, recipes and techniques developed in Tunisia since antiquity. It is mainly a blend of Mediterranean and native Punics-Berber cuisine. Historically, Tunisian cuisine witnessed influence and exchanges with many cultures and nations like Italians, Andalusians, French and Arabs.
Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot, that is made by combining ingredients of meat or vegetables with stock, milk, or water. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth. Soups are similar to stews, and in some cases there may not be a clear distinction between the two; however, soups generally have more liquid (broth) than stews.
Gopchang-jeongol (곱창전골) or beef tripe hot pot is a spicy Korean stew or casserole made by boiling beef tripe, vegetables, and seasonings in beef broth. Gopchang refers to beef small intestines, while jeongol refers to a category of stew or casserole in Korean cuisine. Although the dish is mainly based on beef gopchang, other parts of beef innards are also used to give the dish a richer flavor and chewy texture.
Mala is a spicy and numbing seasoning made from Sichuan peppercorn and chilli. Most commonly, mala is made into a sauce by simmering it in oil and other spices. Characteristic of Sichuan cuisine, particularly Chongqing cuisine, it has become one of the most popular ingredients in Chinese cuisine, spawning many regional variants.
Hot pot or hotpot, also known as steamboat, is a dish whereby a heat source placed on the dining table keeps a pot of soup stock simmering, and a variety of Chinese foodstuffs and ingredients are served beside the pot for the diners to put into the hot stock.
A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef, pork, venison, rabbit, lamb, poultry, sausages, and seafood. While water can be used as the stew-cooking liquid, stock is also common. A small amount of red wine or other alcohol is sometimes added for flavour. Seasonings and flavourings may also be added. Stews are typically cooked at a relatively low temperature, allowing flavours to mingle.