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Eggs Poached in Green Peppers

Eggs poached in green peppers with a savory mushroom, ham, and onion mixture, topped with buttered breadcrumbs and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Eggs Poached in Green 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

  1. Cut a slice from the stem end of each pepper and remove the seeds and pith.

  2. Parboil the peppers in sufficient water for 8 minutes, then drain and invert on a plate.

Make the filling

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan, add onion, and cook for 3 minutes.

  2. Add mushrooms and ham to the onion, cooking for 1 minute.

  3. Moisten the mixture with enough brown sauce to spread, and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.

  4. Line each pepper with a thin layer of the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Break fresh eggs into a cup one at a time and slip them carefully into each pepper.

  2. Sprinkle the tops with buttered bread crumbs mixed with an equal quantity of grated cheese.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the eggs are set.

  4. Serve on rings of toast with brown 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.

  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. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs (in the method)
Set when baked, forming a soft, cohesive filling inside each pepper.
Green peppers
Act as edible cups that hold the filling and eggs during baking.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the filling.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture to the filling.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding richness and colour.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping when baked with butter.

The step that matters

Slipping the eggs into the peppers. Breaking each egg into a cup first lets you check it and slide it in gently without breaking the yolk. Eggs that are too full or too runny can spill over the filling, so the cavity should be snug and the eggs fresh.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, mushroom, pepper, ham, bread, cheese):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, mushroom, pepper, ham, bread, cheese. 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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