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Stuffed Peppers

A baked dish of peppers filled with a mixture of meat, bread crumbs, milk, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Stuffed Peppers

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 peppers

  1. Cut the peppers in half crosswise.

  2. Remove the seeds with an apple corer.

  3. Cut off the stems.

  4. Soak the peppers in salted water until ready to use.

  5. Drain the peppers.

Make the filling

  1. Cook the milk and bread crumbs together in a saucepan until a smooth paste forms.

  2. Add the salt, white pepper, onion juice, butter, beaten eggs, meat, and parsley to the paste. Mix thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Fill the peppers with the mixture and place them in an agate pan.

  2. Pour the white stock or water around the peppers.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 30 minutes, basting the peppers (not the filling) every 10 minutes.

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. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and set it firm during baking.
Bread crumbs
Cooked with milk to form a paste that gives the filling body.
Milk
Softens the bread crumbs into a smooth paste that keeps the filling moist.
Chopped veal, chicken, or lamb
Provides the meaty bulk and savory flavor of the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the milk and bread crumbs into a smooth paste. If the paste is not cooked until smooth, lumps and dry starch remain, and the filling will not bind evenly or hold its texture once the eggs and meat are added.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, veal, milk, bread, onion, butter, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, veal, milk, bread, onion, butter, egg. 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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