Name: Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: 6 green peppers; 1 medium-sized onion; 1 cup boiled Astor Rice; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 cup stewed tomatoes; butter or cheese for topping; water for baking dish

Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Stuffed Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the peppers

Cut the tops off the green peppers and remove the seeds.
Wash the peppers and stuff them with the rice mixture.

Make the filling

In a bowl, mix the boiled rice with salt, chopped onion, and stewed tomatoes.

Assemble and bake

Dot the tops with butter or cheese and replace the tops on the peppers.
Place the stuffed peppers in a baking dish, add a little water to the bottom, and add a tablespoon of butter.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes, basting frequently.

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.

Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers: Hollowed shells that hold the filling and soften as they bake.
Boiled rice: Bulks out the filling and absorbs the juices from the tomatoes and onion.
Stewed tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity that flavour the rice filling as it bakes.
Onion: Adds savoury flavour to the rice filling.