Pepe soup

Ingredients

The meat

• 1 kggoat meat on the bone
• or beef, fish or assorted offal
• cut in pieces
• washed thoroughly

The pepper

• 2 tablespoonsground country pepper
• or cayenne, to taste
• 2fresh hot chillies
• or more

The aromatics

• 2onions, chopped
• 5garlic cloves, crushed
• 4cm ginger, grated
• 1 tablespoonpepe soup spice
• or ground ehuru and uda
• 2stock cubes
• 2 litreswater
• salt

To finish

• a handful of scent leaf
• or basil
• chopped spring onion

Directions

1. Wash the meat thoroughly in water. Rub it with salt and lemon if you like. Rinse it in several changes of water.
2. Keep going until the water runs clear. Tripe needs particularly thorough cleaning. Start it earlier than the other meats. Put all the meat in a large pot. Add the onion, garlic and ginger.
3. Add the stock cubes and the salt. Add all of the water to the pot. Bring the whole pot up to a boil. Skim off any foam that rises up. Grey foam rises in the first minutes. Let it simmer for about an hour. Goat on the bone takes real time.
4. Simmer it on if it still resists. Add the ground country pepper. Add the fresh chillies to the pot. Add the pepper partway through cooking. It needs time to infuse the broth.
5. Stir in all the pepe soup spice. Twenty minutes is enough for it. Taste the broth and adjust it. It should be very hot indeed to taste.
6. Adjust the salt and pepper together. You cannot take it back out again. Add it gradually and taste as you go. Stir in the scent leaf or basil. It should wilt rather than cook.
7. Scatter chopped spring onion over it. Serving it is always done very hot. Ladle it out into deep warm bowls. It is served genuinely piping hot. Serve it out while steaming hot. Cold beer against hot pepper is the pairing.

Technique

• The soup is widely believed to help colds and hangovers, and that belief is genuine and widespread — the atlas records it as a belief rather than a medical fact. A hot spicy broth is genuinely comforting and hot liquid does ease a blocked nose temporarily, which is a real physical effect, but it is a nourishing hot soup rather than a treatment for illness.
• This is a clear thin broth rather than a stew and is not thickened at all, because a thickened soup dulls the pepper where a clear one delivers it sharply. That directness is the point — it is meant to be bracing. Skim the foam in the first minutes to keep the broth clear.
• Add the ground pepper about twenty minutes before the end and the spice mix at the same point: the pepper needs time to infuse but long boiling dulls the fresh heat, and the spice blend’s aroma is volatile and fades. You can always add more pepper and cannot take it out, so add it gradually and taste.

Substitutions

• Ready-made pepe soup spice is sold in African food shops and is the practical route; it contains ehuru, the calabash nutmeg, and uda, the negro pepper pod, among others.
• Basil stands in for scent leaf, a West African basil that is stronger than sweet basil; either goes in at the very last moment and should wilt rather than cook.

Variations

• Wash the meat thoroughly, rubbing it with salt and lemon if you like and rinsing in several changes of water until it runs clear — standard practice in the region. Tripe needs particularly thorough scraping and takes far longer to cook, so start it earlier.
• Some cooks steam the meat briefly in its own juices with the aromatics before the water goes in, which concentrates the flavour.
• It is served steaming hot in bars alongside cold beer, drunk as much as eaten, with the broth taken from the bowl and the meat eaten with the hands.

History

An Anglophone Cameroonian bar and roadside soup shared with Nigeria, drunk hot with beer and reputed to cure colds and hangovers.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pepe soup?

Pepe soup is a soup & stew from Cameroon: fiery clear broth of goat, fish or offal spiked with country pepper. An Anglophone Cameroonian bar and roadside soup shared with Nigeria, drunk hot with beer and reputed to cure colds and hangovers.

How long does Pepe soup take to make?

Pepe soup takes 20 minutes of preparation and 1 hour 30 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Pepe soup?

Yes, within limits. Ready-made pepe soup spice is sold in African food shops and is the practical route; it contains ehuru, the calabash nutmeg, and uda, the negro pepper pod, among others. Basil stands in for scent leaf, a West African basil that is stronger than sweet basil; either goes in at the very last moment and should wilt rather than cook.

What is the most important thing to get right in Pepe soup?

Add the stock cubes and the salt. Add all of the water to the pot. Bring the whole pot up to a boil. Skim off any foam that rises up. Grey foam rises in the first minutes. Let it simmer for about an hour. Goat on the bone takes real time.