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Baked Corn in Pepper Cases

Baked corn in pepper shells is a savory dish of boiled corn mixed with butter, flour, cream, and salt, baked in pepper shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Baked Corn in Pepper Cases

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the peppers

  1. Scald the peppers in boiling water for 5 minutes.

  2. Rub off the skin, cut off the stem end, and scrape out the seeds.

Make the corn filling

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter.

  2. Stir in the flour to make a roux.

  3. Gradually add the thin cream, stirring until smooth.

  4. Add the salt and mix in the boiled corn.

  5. Fill the pepper shells with the corn and sauce mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the filled peppers close together in a baking dish.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Bull-nose peppers
Their flesh softens during baking and their shells hold the filling as a edible cup.
Boiled corn
Provides the main bulk and sweetness of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and forms the base of the roux.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth, stable sauce that binds the corn.
Thin cream
Adds moisture and richness, setting into a soft, custard-like sauce when baked.

The step that matters

Make the roux and add the cream gradually. Cooking the flour in butter before adding the cream prevents lumps and lets the flour thicken the sauce evenly. Adding the cream all at once or too fast can leave lumps that do not smooth out.

“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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