Name: Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: 6 green peppers; 1 tablespoon melted butter; 2 cups minced cold meat (chicken or veal); 1 cup stock or water; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 cup bread crumbs; 1 cup tomato sauce; 1 small onion

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

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.

Prepare the peppers

Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the lining and seeds with scissors.
Soak the peppers in cold water for 30 minutes, then drain.

Stuff and bake

In a bowl, mix the minced meat, chopped onion, melted butter, salt, pepper, and a few bread crumbs.
Fill the peppers with the meat mixture.
Place the stuffed peppers in a baking dish and add the stock or water.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until heated through.

Serve

Serve hot with tomato sauce.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers: Act as the edible vessel that holds the filling and softens as it bakes.
Minced cold meat: Provides the savory, protein-rich body of the filling.
Bread crumbs: Absorb juices and help the filling hold together and stay moist.
Melted butter: Adds fat for richness and helps keep the filling moist.
Tomato sauce: Adds acidity and savory flavor when served alongside the peppers.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well
Onionthe original

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