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Stuffed Pepper

A bell pepper filled with a meat and cream mixture, baked with water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed Pepper

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the pepper

  1. Cut the top off the bell pepper to create a cover.

  2. Remove a thin slice from the bottom so the pepper can stand.

  3. Remove the seeds from the pepper.

Fill and bake

  1. Make a sauce and mix in the meat.

  2. Fill the pepper with the meat mixture and replace the cover.

  3. Fasten the cover with a small wooden skewer.

  4. Place the pepper in a baking pan and add hot water to the bottom.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Remove the cover before serving.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Onion + vealtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

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

  3. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

  5. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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

Bell pepper
Forms the edible shell that holds the filling and softens as it bakes.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness to the meat filling, keeping it tender.
Veal or chicken
Forms the main filling, setting as it cooks to give the mixture body.

The step that matters

Baking with hot water in the pan. Hot water around the pepper gives gentle, moist heat. This helps the cream-based meat filling set smoothly and stay tender instead of drying out or curdling in the oven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, veal, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, veal, pepper. 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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