PepperPot

As a child, one of my fondest memories would be of Christmas morning hoping to see if Santa had come for a visit, eaten his cookies, drunk his milk and yes, if he left behind any gifts. Let's face it, the gifts! The biggest event of the day, well for a child. But for a grown-up, food was (is) the big event, and after opening the gifts and trying them out, we would have Pepperpot for breakfast that Mom prepared the night before. I was always fond of this name, it was like a gateway to a festive time of the year, when families would come together. As I was setting up this site, I did my research and discovered that there is a myriad of Pepper Pots, and to my surprise in the dictionary it goes like this:

pepper pot; pepperpot
1. A West Indian stew containing CASSAREEP, meat or seafood with okra and other vegetables, chilies, cayenne pepper and other seasonings. 2.A thick soup of TRIPE, meat, vegetables, dough balls highly seasoned with pepper and other seasonings. It's also called Philadelphia Pepper Pot. The soup is said to have been created by a Pennsylvania Dutch cook during the desperate winter of 1777-1778, when Washington's army was down to tripe, peppercorns and various scraps of other food at Valley Forge.

What?!, Philadelphia?! Now guys, I'm a Guyanese, and for what I know Pepperpot was created way back, when refrigeration did not exist and this stew can stay un-refrigerated as long as you reheat it to a boil every day. Hey, you should consider the fact that I have family and friends all over the world, even in Philly and they never... (well I guess it's not a big deal for them). So I did more research, here's some more:

♦ The famous pepper pot soup originated during Washington's siege at Valley Forge. When Washington demanded a stomach-filling dish for his soldiers, the cook, after remarking, "There are only a few scraps in the kitchen," produced this fragrant soup. Tripe, peppercorns and all the scraps went into the caldron and made this excellent soup. It soon put the men into such high spirits they cried out, "Bring on the Red Coats!". The Pennsylvania Dutch cook devised this tasty dish and named it in honor of his hometown, Philadelphia. In the 19th century, it was hawked on the streets of Philadelphia piping hot in milk cans.

♦ George Washington had such a liking for pepper pot soup that it was said that he moved the capital of the United States from New York to Philadelphia to be closer to the original source.

♦ Campbell Soup Company first introduced Pepperpot canned condensed soup in 1913. It is still in national distribution, with the heaviest distribution in the Philadelphia area. "The Soup Book by Louis P. DeGouy"

We will never know who was the first, but all I can say is that our West Indian recipe made with cassareep (a fermented extract made from bitter cassava) is a tasty stew, hot and spicy! Anyway, this site is a collection of recipes from around the world, new and old, some are hot, some are spicy and some are not, but tasty, so please feel free to poke around, join the kitchen forums, see the handy tips and just experiment in the kitchen.