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Kentucky Stuffed Peppers

A baked dish of bell peppers filled with sausage, tomato, bread crumbs, and topped with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Kentucky Stuffed 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut the tops off the bell peppers and remove the seeds.

Stuff and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped tomato, bread crumbs, and sausage meat.

  2. Stuff the mixture into the prepared bell peppers.

  3. Place the stuffed peppers in a baking dish and pour gravy over them.

  4. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the peppers are tender.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  3. Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Bell peppers
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and softens as it bakes.
Sausage meat
Provides fat and savory flavor, and browns as it cooks in the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb juices and fat, helping the filling hold together and stay moist.
Tomato
Adds moisture and acidity that brightens the rich sausage filling.
Gravy
Adds moisture and savory flavor as it bakes over the peppers.

The step that matters

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the peppers are tender. Peppers need enough heat and time for their walls to soften while the sausage cooks through. Underbaked peppers stay tough and the filling may remain pink or raw inside, so check tenderness and the filling's doneness.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Mustardfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, bread, meat. 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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