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Tuna in Peppers

A baked dish of bell peppers filled with tuna, eggs, sweet milk, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Tuna in 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 the peppers

  1. Cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise and remove the seeds.

  2. Soak the peppers in cold water for a while and parboil for 10 minutes.

Fill and bake

  1. Beat the eggs until light, then add the sweet milk, tuna, bread crumbs, and seasonings.

  2. Pack the mixture into the peppers and sprinkle the tops with buttered crumbs.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until heated through 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the filling body and a soft texture.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture to the filling, keeping it tender as it bakes.
Tuna
Provides the main protein and savoury flavour of the filling.
Bell peppers
Act as edible cups that hold the filling and soften when baked.

The step that matters

Parboil the peppers. Parboiling softens the pepper walls so they become tender during baking. Skipping it can leave them tough while the filling overcooks.

“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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