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Stuffed Peppers

A baked dish of bell peppers filled with a breadcrumb, onion, tomato, and butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Wash and remove the centers from the bell peppers.

  2. In a bowl, combine bread crumbs, chopped onion, chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, and melted butter.

  3. Fill the peppers with the stuffing mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the stuffed peppers closely together in a baking pan half-filled with hot water, adding a little soup stock or gravy if desired.

  2. Cover the pan with another pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the cover for the last 5 to 10 minutes to allow the peppers to brown.

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

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

  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. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  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

Bread crumbs
Form the bulk of the stuffing and soak up moisture from the vegetables and butter.
Bell peppers
Act as the edible shell that holds the stuffing and softens as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that keeps the stuffing moist and helps it brown.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that give the stuffing a fresh, bright flavor.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and flavor to the stuffing as it cooks.

The step that matters

Covering the pan, then uncovering it to brown. Covering the pan traps steam so the peppers soften through without drying out. Removing the cover at the end lets dry heat brown the surface.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, bread, tomato, 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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