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Stuffed Bell Peppers, American Style

A baked dish of bell peppers filled with onions, mushrooms, butter, Allemande sauce, breadcrumbs, egg yolks, parsley, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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 Bell Peppers, American Style

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

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

  2. Slice off the tops of the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and lightly fry the chopped onions.

  2. Add the chopped mushrooms and cover the saucepan until moisture is reduced.

  3. Stir in the reduced Allemande sauce, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Remove from heat and mix in the egg yolks and parsley.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the mixture into the prepared bell peppers and place them in a buttered baking pan.

  2. Sprinkle additional bread crumbs on top and add a small piece of butter on each.

  3. Bake until nicely browned, then serve with a teaspoon of veal gravy over each pepper.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bell peppers
Act as the hollow edible shell that holds the filling during baking.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and set when baked, giving it a firm, sliceable texture.
Reduced allemande sauce
Adds moisture and a rich, creamy body to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body, while the topping crisps and browns.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the topping brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Cover the mushrooms until their moisture is reduced. Mushrooms release a lot of water as they cook. If it is not cooked off before mixing, the filling becomes soggy and loose, and it may not hold together when baked with the egg yolks.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, mushroom, sauce, bread, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, mushroom, sauce, bread, nutmeg, 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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