Name: Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: 6 green peppers; 2 cups boiled chicken, veal, or lamb, chopped; 2 cups boiled rice; 1 cup strained tomatoes; 1 tablespoon grated onion; 2½ tablespoons melted butter; ¾ cup meat stock; 2 tablespoons fresh bread crumbs

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. 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

Remove the stem end and seeds from the peppers.
Boil the peppers in salted water for 10 minutes, then drain.

Fill and bake

In a bowl, mix the meat, rice, tomatoes, onion, and bread crumbs.
Fill the peppers with the mixture and place them in a baking dish.
Pour the meat stock and additional tomatoes over the peppers.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 25 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.

Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 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: Form the edible shell that holds the filling while it cooks.
Chicken, veal, or lamb: Provides the meaty body and savory flavor of the filling.
Boiled rice: Adds bulk and soft texture that absorbs juices from the filling.
Strained tomatoes: Adds moisture and acidity that keeps the filling from drying out.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and helps the surface brown lightly.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Onionthe original

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