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Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed bell peppers filled with minced meat, mashed potatoes or rice, baked with a butter‑cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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.

Prepare the peppers

  1. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds and white membranes with a sharp knife.

  2. Soak the peppers overnight in salt water.

Stuff and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the minced meat, mashed potatoes or rice, salt, and butter.

  2. Bind the mixture together with cream or rich stock.

  3. Fill the peppers with the mixture and place them upright in a baking dish.

  4. Add enough hot water to the dish to prevent burning.

  5. Cover the dish closely and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  6. Transfer the stuffed peppers to a serving dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. For the sauce, combine stock, minced onion, parsley, tomatoes, and the creamed butter and flour in a saucepan.

  2. Cook gently until smooth and serve over the stuffed peppers.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  5. 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

Bell peppers
Form the edible shell that holds the filling while baking.
Minced meat
Provides the savory body and richness of the filling.
Mashed potatoes or rice
Absorbs moisture and bulks the filling so it stays tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer filling.
Flour
Thickens the sauce so it becomes smooth and clings to the peppers.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cover the dish closely and add hot water before baking. The hot water in the dish and the tight cover keep the baking moist and gentle, preventing the peppers and filling from scorching or drying out in the oven.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, veal, potato, butter, cream, onion, parsley):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, veal, potato, butter, cream, onion, parsley. 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.

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