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Green Peppers Au Gratest

A baked dish of green peppers stuffed with rice, chicken, and tomato sauce, topped with breadcrumbs and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Green Peppers Au Gratest

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 the peppers

  1. Cut the stem-end from the peppers and remove the seeds using a penknife and a small spoon.

  2. Soak the peppers in cold water for 30 minutes.

Fill and bake

  1. Mix the cold boiled rice, minced chicken, coarse sea salt, butter, and enough tomato juice to moisten.

  2. Fill the peppers with the mixture, heaping it up, and place them upright in a deep dish without the stem-tops.

  3. Fill the gaps with the remaining mixture and pour tomato sauce thickened with drawn butter into the dish, leaving the tops of the peppers visible.

  4. Sprinkle fine bread crumbs over the top and dot with butter.

  5. Cover and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour, then uncover to brown.

  6. Serve in the baking dish.

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. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers
Form the edible container that holds the filling while it bakes.
Cold boiled rice
Bulks out the filling and absorbs tomato juice, giving it a soft body.
Cold minced chicken
Provides the protein and savoury richness of the filling.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity, forming a sauce around the peppers in the dish.
Drawn butter
Thickens the tomato sauce and adds fat for a richer mouthfeel.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a topping that browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Cover and bake, then uncover to brown. Covering traps steam so the peppers soften and the filling heats through; uncovering lets dry heat brown the crumb topping. Skipping the uncovered stage leaves the top pale.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Potatofits less well
  4. Asparagusfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, rice, chicken, butter, sauce, bread. 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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