Why it works: Pepper and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 50,459 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Stuffed 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
Cut off the stem end of the peppers and remove the seeds.
Fill the peppers with a dressing, such as bread dumpling or meat croquette filling.
Bake
Place the stuffed peppers in a baking dish and drizzle with oil or fat.
When browned, add a little flour and some soup stock.
Cover the dish and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 50 minutes.
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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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green peppers
- Form the cups that hold the filling and soften as they bake.
- Oil or fat
- Carries heat to the pepper surfaces, encouraging browning and adding richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth gravy.
- Soup stock
- Adds liquid that steams the filling and forms the sauce.
The step that matters
Browning before adding flour and stock. Browning the surface first builds flavor through the Maillard reaction. Adding flour and liquid too early stops browning and can leave the flour tasting raw.
“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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