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Oyster Peppers

Oysters stuffed in sweet red peppers, coated in crumbs and baked with butter and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Oyster and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,184 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Oyster Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the small end of the red pepper and remove seeds and veins.

  2. Dip the oysters into the beaten egg seasoned with salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.

  3. Coat the oysters in cracker crumbs.

Stuff and bake

  1. Fill the peppers with the oysters and place a generous piece of butter in each.

  2. Replace the cut-off slice of pepper on top and secure with a toothpick.

  3. Set the peppers in a pan with veal stock or seasoned oyster liquid and bake until tender, basting frequently.

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. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

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

  3. Oyster + saucetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Provide the main filling and a briny, savoury flavour.
Beaten egg
Binds the cracker crumbs to the oysters and helps the coating set.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture as it melts into the filling.
Red pepper
Acts as a sweet edible shell that softens as it bakes.

The step that matters

Baste the peppers while they bake. Basting keeps the peppers and filling moist as the liquid in the pan evaporates, so the pepper becomes tender without the oysters drying out.

“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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