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Tuna Fish in Peppers

A baked dish of tuna, eggs, bread crumbs, and milk stuffed into peppers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tuna Fish in Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Cut the peppers in half lengthwise and remove the seeds.

  2. Soak the peppers in boiling water for 20 minutes.

Fill and bake

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs until light, then add the milk, tuna, bread crumbs, salt, and pepper.

  2. Pack the mixture into the peppers and sprinkle the tops with buttered crumbs.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until brown.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Peppers
Hold the filling in their halved shells and soften as they cook.
Tuna fish
Provides the main filling body and savory flavor.
Eggs
Beaten eggs bind the filling and set it as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the milk and help give the filling a firm, sliceable texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the egg mixture.
Butter
Browns the buttered crumb topping and adds richness.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. Baking until the topping is brown and the egg mixture has set is what holds the filling together. Underbaking leaves it loose and wet, while overbaking can make the eggs dry and rubbery.

“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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