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Peppers and Eggs-excellent

A dish of bell peppers filled with breadcrumbs, ham, and eggs, baked until set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Peppers and Eggs-excellent

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise, remove the seeds, and rinse well.

  2. Place the peppers in a kettle of boiling water for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove and drain the peppers on a sieve.

Fill and bake

  1. Line each half with buttered breadcrumbs and grated ham.

  2. Carefully break an egg into each half, add a tiny bit of butter on top, and dust with salt and pepper.

  3. Bake until the egg white is set and serve on rounds of buttered toast.

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. Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + hamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Bell peppers
Hold the egg in a edible cup and soften as they cook.
Eggs
Set when baked to form the soft filling that is the centre of the dish.
Buttered breadcrumbs
Soak up moisture and add a light, toasted texture around the egg.
Grated ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until the egg white is set. Egg white sets at around 60 to 70°C while the yolk stays runny, so pulling it too early leaves the white watery and pulling it too late makes the yolk firm and rubbery.

“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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