Name: Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: 4 large bell peppers; 1 cup finely chopped veal or chicken; 1 cup softened bread crumbs; 2 tablespoons onion juice; coarse sea salt to taste; black pepper to taste

Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stuffed 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

Cut a slice from the stem end of each pepper and remove the seeds.
Parboil the peppers in water for 15 minutes.

Stuff and bake

In a bowl, mix the chopped veal or chicken with the softened bread crumbs, onion juice, salt, and pepper.
Stuff the mixture into the parboiled peppers.
Place the stuffed peppers in a baking dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) until heated through, about 20-25 minutes.

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.

Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,676 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,056 recipes

Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).
Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,841 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: Form the edible shell that holds the filling and softens when cooked.
Veal or chicken: Provides the savory meat filling that cooks through during baking.
Bread crumbs: Absorb liquid and bind the filling so it stays moist rather than dense.
Onion juice: Adds aromatic onion flavor to the filling without bulky chunks.