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Stuffed Green Peppers

A dish of green peppers filled with a mixture of chopped meat, cracker crumbs, tomato, onion juice, and seasonings, baked with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stuffed Green Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Cut the stem ends from the green peppers and remove the insides with a sharp knife.

  2. Scald the peppers in boiling water for five minutes and then drain.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped meat, cracker crumbs, chopped tomato, onion juice, salt, and pepper.

  2. Moisten the mixture with a little stock or milk.

Stuff and cook

  1. Fill the peppers with the meat mixture and place a bit of butter on top.

  2. Tie on the covers and place the peppers in a pan with enough water to prevent burning.

  3. Cover and cook for fifteen minutes, then cook uncovered for an additional fifteen minutes.

  4. Serve immediately.

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

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

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

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers
Form the hollow shell that holds the filling and softens as it cooks.
Chopped meat
Provides the main filling, adding savory flavor and body as it cooks through.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid from the meat and help the filling hold together.
Chopped fresh tomato
Adds moisture and acidity to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that browns and flavors the top of the filling.

The step that matters

Adding water to the pan. Enough water in the pan keeps the peppers from scorching on the bottom while they steam and soften, so the pan should not run dry during the covered cooking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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