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Shrimps and Bell Peppers

Stuffed bell peppers filled with a shrimp and breadcrumb mixture, baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Shrimps and Bell 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

  1. Cut a slice from the stem end of each pepper and remove the seeds and veins.

  2. Soak the peppers in cold salted water for 1 hour.

Make the filling

  1. Cream the butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the mustard, egg, celery seeds, nutmeg, bread crumbs, and shrimps.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill the peppers with the shrimp mixture.

  2. Place the filled peppers in a pan and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Shrimps
Provide the main filling, becoming tender and opaque as they cook through in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the egg and butter to give the filling body and a moist, soft texture.
Egg
Binds the filling so it holds its shape when spooned into the peppers.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, keeping the filling moist and flavourful during baking.
Green peppers
Act as edible cups that hold the filling and soften as they bake.

The step that matters

Soaking the peppers in cold salted water for 1 hour. Soaking firms and seasons the pepper walls so they hold their shape and do not collapse under the filling. Drain and dry them well before filling, since excess water would dilute the filling and make it soggy.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, mustard, egg, celery, bread, shrimp):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, mustard, egg, celery, bread, shrimp. 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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