Pennsylvania - The Keystone State, State flower: Mountain Laurel

1. Pennsylvania Dutch Pepper Slaw
2. Green Beans with Apples
3. Ginger Pickled Beets
4. Pennsylvania Dutch Applesauce Bread
5. Philadelphia Cinnamon Buns
6. Shoo-Fly Pie
7. Philadelphia Pepper Pot Soup
8. Flannel Cales with Chicken Hash

Philadelphia Pepper Pot Soup - Serves 10 to 12

Pepper pot varies in seasonings but the basic ingredients remain about the same. Tomatoes are sometime included but they have no right to be in the recipe. This soup was a favorite even in the days when tomatoes were called "love apples" and were strictly a decoration on the mantelpiece. The hot soup was hawked through the streets of early Philadelphia by black women; it was sold from a large milk can covered with a white towel. There is so much work involved in making the soup that most women today buy it already prepared. It is a complete meal in itself, usually served with crusty bread on a cold winter day.

6 to 7 lbs raw lean honeycomb tripe
1 tsp whole cloves
1-½ tsp salt
1 tsp whole black pepper, crushed
1 knuckle of veal
1 heaped tsp sweet marjoram
3 leeks
1 tsp summer savory
1 large onion
1 tsp sweet basil
3 or 4 carrots, sliced
1 tsp thyme
1 large stalk celery, sliced
3 cups diced potatoes
1 large bunch parsley
3 Tbsp flour
½ tsp salt
2-½ Tbsp butter
¼ fresh hot red pepper or 1 whole dried red pepper
Meat or flour dumplings

Wash and scrub the tripe thoroughly. Cover liberally with water, about 6 qt, to which 1 tsp salt has been added. Bring to a boil and boil moderately, constantly for 6 to 7 hours, until tripe is tender. Add more water if necessary as tripe must cook well covered with water.

In another saucepan put the veal, leeks, onion, carrots, celery and parsley; cover with water and add salt and red pepper. Simmer until the meat falls from the bone, about 2 hours. At the end of the first hour add the cloves, black pepper, marjoram, summer savory, sweet basil and thyme tied in a cheese cloth. Strain the liquid, allow to cool, remove all the grease.

Remove tripe from its liquor, reserve the liquid. Dice the tripe in ¼" pieces and combine it with the tripe and veal stocks which have been heated. Put potatoes on in cold salted water and boil 10 minutes. Drain, add to the stock and tripe. Season if and as necessary. Make a roux of the flour and butter, mix slowly with a little of the boiling soup, then add to the soup, stirring constantly. Serve with dumplings if desired.

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