Name: Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: nice sweet peppers; cold chicken or veal; softened bread crumbs; onion juice; coarse sea salt; black pepper; buttered bread crumbs; toast; brown gravy

Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the peppers

Cut a slice from the stem end of the peppers and remove the seeds.
Parboil the peppers for 15 minutes.

Make the filling

Mix equal parts of cold chicken or veal with softened bread crumbs.
Season the mixture with onion juice, coarse sea salt, and black pepper.

Bake and serve

Fill the peppers with the mixture and cover with buttered bread crumbs.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.
Serve on toast with brown gravy.

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.

Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,676 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet peppers: Act as the edible shell that holds the filling while it heats.
Cold chicken or veal: Provides the meaty body of the filling.
Softened bread crumbs: Bind the meat and absorb moisture to keep the filling tender.
Buttered bread crumbs: Form a golden, crisp topping as the filling bakes.