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Stuffed Green Peppers—

A pickled dish of green peppers stuffed with a seasoned cabbage and onion mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stuffed Green Peppers—

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Cut off the tops of the green peppers and remove the seeds.

  2. Soak the peppers in strong salt water for 48 hours, then dry them.

Fill and pack

  1. Chop the cabbage and onions finely and mix with mustard seed, mace, cloves, allspice, and salt.

  2. Fill the mixture into the peppers and tie the tops with string.

  3. Pack the peppers in a stone jar and cover with scalding hot vinegar mixed with dissolved sugar.

Pickle and store

  1. Let stand for 24 hours, then drain the vinegar.

  2. Boil the vinegar and pour it over the peppers again, repeating this process once more.

  3. Cover the jar and store in a cool place.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers
Form the edible shell that holds the filling and softens as it pickles.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and crunch to the filling, absorbing some of the pickling liquid.
White onions
Add savory flavor to the filling as they mellow in the vinegar.
Mustard seed
Contributes sharp, pungent flavor that lingers through the pickling.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Vinegar
Acidifies the brine, preserving the peppers and giving them their tang.

The step that matters

Repeated vinegar draining and reboiling. Vinegar must be drained and reboiled twice more so the peppers are fully acidified and preserved. Pouring it on cold or skipping a round can leave the peppers under-pickled and less stable in storage.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cabbage, onion, mustard, clove, allspice, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, onion, mustard, clove, allspice, sugar. 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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