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Baked Bell Peppers

A baked dish of green bell peppers filled with shrimp, breadcrumbs, and seasoned butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Baked Bell 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

  1. Cut the stem end of the peppers, remove the seeds and skin, and soak them in salted water for 30 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, cream the butter and add the mustard, pepper, celery seed, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Beat in the egg, then mix in the bread crumbs and chopped shrimp.

Bake and serve

  1. Stuff the mixture into the prepared pepper pods.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 20 minutes.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimp
Provides the main filling, adding bulk and a savory seafood flavor.
Egg
Binds the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorbs moisture and adds body to the filling, keeping it tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the creamed mixture.
Green bell peppers
Serve as edible shells that hold the filling and soften as they bake.

The step that matters

Stuffing the peppers. Pack the filling firmly into each pepper without tearing the skin, so it stays in place and cooks evenly. Peppers soaked beforehand are more pliable and less likely to split during stuffing.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, shrimp, bread, celery, nutmeg, egg, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, shrimp, bread, celery, nutmeg, egg, butter. 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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