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Stuffed Peppers

A dish of bell peppers filled with a ham or veal mixture, baked until heated.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Melt the drippings in a separate pan.

  3. Add the flour to the drippings and blend well.

  4. Pour the flour mixture into the hot milk and stir until thick.

  5. Add salt and pepper.

Prepare the peppers

  1. Mix the seasoning with the meat.

  2. Remove the cores from the peppers.

  3. Stuff the peppers with the meat mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake the stuffed peppers in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until heated through.

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.

  1. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Ham + milktop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,089 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cold cooked ham or veal
Provides the main filling and savory meaty flavor of the stuffing.
Flour
Thickens the milk and drippings into a smooth, cohesive sauce that binds the filling.
Drippings
Adds fat and savory flavor to the roux that starts the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy body and mild richness.

The step that matters

Pour the flour mixture into the hot milk and stir until thick. Adding the roux to hot milk while stirring constantly prevents lumps, and the starch must cook fully to thicken the sauce properly.

“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.

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