Name: Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: 4 bell peppers; 1 pound chopped meat; Coarse sea salt to taste; 2 teaspoons butter; 1 pint stock or water

Why it works: Meat and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Cut a slice from the top of each pepper and scoop out the center.
Fill the peppers with the chopped meat, seasoned well.
Place the stuffed peppers in a baking dish with 1 pint of stock or salted water.
Add 2 teaspoons of butter to the liquid.
Baste frequently while cooking.
Serve hot or cold.

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.

Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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