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Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed bell peppers with rice, hamburger, onion, butter, tomatoes, and bacon, baked for 3 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Bell Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the peppers

  1. Cut off the tops of the bell peppers and remove the seeds.

  2. In a skillet, fry the chopped onion in butter until soft.

Fill and stuff

  1. In a bowl, mix the fried onion, hot boiled rice, and hamburger.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the prepared bell peppers.

  3. Place the stuffed peppers upright in a baking dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the peppers with their tops and lay a slice of bacon on each.

  2. Pour the can of tomatoes over the stuffed peppers.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 3 hours.

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. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  5. 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

Hamburger
Provides the meaty filling and savory flavor that the rest of the stuffing is built around.
Hot boiled rice
Absorbs juices and fat from the meat, giving the filling bulk and a softer texture.
Bell peppers
Act as edible containers that soften during baking and hold the filling in shape.
Bacon
Renders fat over the peppers as they bake, adding moisture and savory flavor to the tops.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid that moisten the filling and blend into a sauce during the long bake.

The step that matters

Bake at a low temperature for a long time. Baking at 300°F for 3 hours lets the peppers soften fully and the meat cook through gently, so the filling stays moist rather than dry or tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, rice, butter, tomato):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, rice, butter, tomato. 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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