Name: Stuffed Green Peppers
Ingredients: 6 large green peppers; cold meat, minced fine; stale bread, equal amount to meat; cold gravy

Why it works: Meat and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stuffed Green Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

6 large green peppers
cold meat, minced fine
stale bread, equal amount to meat
cold gravy

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 peppers

Wash the green peppers and boil them in water for 5 minutes.
Rub off the skins with a wet cloth, cut off the stems, and remove the seeds.

Stuff and bake

Stuff the peppers with minced cold meat and an equal amount of stale bread.
Replace the stems and place the peppers in a deep dish.
Pour in enough cold gravy to fill the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.
Serve in the dish in which they were baked.

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 + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 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

Green peppers: Form the edible shell, softening when boiled and holding the filling while baking.
Cold meat: Supplies the savory, rich filling that makes up the main body of the dish.
Stale bread: Absorbs moisture and gravy, keeping the filling light and binding it to the meat.
Cold gravy: Adds moisture and flavor as it bakes around the peppers, keeping the filling from 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.