Why it works: Rice and saffron work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Peppers, Chinese Fashion
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peppers
Dip the green peppers in hot fat for about 1 minute.
Sprinkle the peppers with salt.
Remove the skin of the peppers using a cloth.
Cut the lower part of each pepper near the stem.
Remove all the seeds from the peppers.
Wash the peppers in hot water.
Lay the peppers on a towel.
Make the rice filling
Heat the butter in a pan.
Add the chopped onions to the pan.
When the onions are half done, add the rice, chopped ham, and chopped trimmings of the peppers.
Stir the mixture for 2 minutes.
Moisten the mixture with broth to double the height of the rice.
Cook the mixture slowly for 18 to 20 minutes.
Season the mixture with salt, ginger, and saffron.
Fill, bake and serve
Fill the peppers with the mixture.
Turn the filled peppers upside down on a buttered pan.
Bake the peppers until thoroughly hot.
Serve the peppers with brown sauce.
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.
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Rice + saffrontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together629 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Pepper + saffrontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together781 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Ginger + saffrontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together418 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,595 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
- Hollowed shells that hold the filling and soften when baked.
- Rice
- Absorbs the broth and becomes the tender, moist body of the filling.
- Butter
- Fat for frying the onions, adding richness and carrying flavour through the filling.
- Onions
- Softened in fat to build sweetness and savoury depth in the filling.
- Lean ham
- Adds salty, meaty flavour to the rice filling.
- Broth
- Liquid that cooks the rice and moistens the filling so it stays juicy.
The step that matters
Cooking the rice filling slowly with broth. Rice must absorb the broth gently; cooking too hard can leave it hard or scorch it on the pan base, while too little liquid leaves the filling dry.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, onion, rice, ham, saffron, veal):
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Turmericfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, onion, rice, ham, saffron, veal. 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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