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Stuffed Peppers

A dish of peppers stuffed with a mixture of veal, onions, chilis, tomatoes, and bread crumbs, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. In a skillet, brown the chopped onions and chilis in butter.

  2. Add the chopped tomatoes and cooked veal; cook until done.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the peppers with the mixture.

  2. Top each pepper with a spoonful of bread crumbs and a lump of butter.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes and serve hot.

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

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 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. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + peppertop 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

Bell peppers
Hold the filling and soften as they bake, becoming tender and sweet.
Veal
Provides the main cooked protein that gives the filling its body and savory flavor.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that blend with the filling as it cooks.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping that browns in the oven and absorbs surface butter.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the onions brown and the topping crisp.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until done before stuffing. The veal is already cooked, and the peppers bake only briefly. Cooking the tomato and veal mixture first lets excess moisture evaporate, so the filling stays thick rather than making the peppers watery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, tomato, veal, pepper, 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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