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Victoria Peppers

A baked dish of bell peppers with onions, peas, celery, tomatoes, parmesan, butter, breadcrumbs, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Victoria 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. Remove the seeds and veins from the peppers and cut them into strips.

  2. Cover the strips with cold water, bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes; then drain.

Mix and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the peppers, onion, peas, celery, tomatoes, salt, parmesan cheese, and melted butter, and mix well.

  2. Transfer to a buttered pan.

  3. Cover with bread crumbs, pour over the water, dot with butter, and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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 main body of the dish and soften into a tender filling when boiled and baked.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and helps the topping brown as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the bread crumb topping turn golden in the oven.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that brighten the filling as it cooks.
Peas
Add body and sweetness to the filling.

The step that matters

Boiling the peppers before filling. Boiling softens the pepper strips so they become tender during baking. Draining well matters because excess water thins the filling and can make the dish soggy.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion, celery, tomato, parmesan cheese, butter, bread):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits about as well
  3. Lima beansfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion, celery, tomato, parmesan cheese, butter, 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.

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