Name: Peppers Filled with Meat
Ingredients: 12 medium peppers,; 1 3/4 lb/750 g ground meat,; 2 onions, 2 tablespoons rice,; 1 tablespoon lard,; chopped parsley and dill,; salt,; pepper,; 2 tomatoes;; Sauce:; 1 lb/500 g tomatoes,; 1/2 onion,; 1 teaspoon sugar,; 1/2 teaspoon flour,; salt,; chopped parsley,; 1 tablespoon lard,; sour cream

Why it works: Parsley and dill match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 669 recipes. Both carry p-mentha-1,3,8-triene, which smells camphor, herbal. The science ↓

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.

Parsley + dilltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together669 recipes

Shared aroma: p-mentha-1,3,8-triene (camphor, herbal).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + dilltop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,630 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ground meat: Forms the savoury filling that makes up most of each pepper.
Rice: Absorbs juices from the meat and onion, keeping the filling moist and tender.
Onions: Add sweetness and aroma when cooked, and flavour the filling and sauce.
Tomatoes: Provide acidity and liquid that becomes the sauce the peppers bake in.
Peppers: Act as the edible vessel that holds the filling and softens while baking.

The step that matters

Adding water to the sauce. If the sauce does not cover the peppers, the exposed parts can dry out or scorch in the oven. Adding a little water keeps the liquid level even so the peppers cook through gently.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, meat, rice, parsley, dill, tomato, sauce):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, meat, rice, parsley, dill, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Dill	5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried	4
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Meat	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Peppers Filled with Meat