Name: Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: 6 sweet Spanish peppers; ½ pint chopped cooked chicken; ½ pint stale bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 2 tablespoons butter

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the peppers

Cut off the stem end of the peppers and remove the seeds.
Boil the peppers in a saucepan of water, cover, and let them sit for 15 minutes.
Drain the peppers.

Make the stuffing

Mix the chicken, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and parsley in a bowl.
Melt the butter and pour it over the mixture, then stir to combine.

Fill and bake

Fill them with the stuffing.
Sprinkle the tops with bread crumbs and dot the tops with bits of butter.
Place in a baking pan.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 15 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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 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

Chopped cooked chicken: Provides the bulk and protein of the filling, giving it a substantial, meaty texture.
Stale bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and bind the filling, helping it hold its shape in the peppers.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the filling and browns the tops during baking.