Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Stuffed Chili Peppers
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the peppers on top of the stove, then peel them carefully.
In a bowl, mix the chopped meat, onion, tomato, thyme, parsley, and salt.
Stuff the mixture into the peppers.
In another bowl, make a thin batter with flour and eggs.
Dip the stuffed peppers in the batter and fry them in hot lard until golden brown.
Arrange the fried peppers in a dish and make a sauce with brown flour to pour over them.
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.
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Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,370 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, meat, tomato, thyme, parsley, flour, egg):
- Shallotfits better
- Okrafits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, meat, tomato, thyme, parsley, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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