Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Stuffed Sweet Peppers
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the peppers
Make an incision in one side of each sweet pepper and remove the seeds with a stick.
Stuff the peppers with a mixture of forcemeat, boiled rice, coarse sea salt, onion juice, and butter.
Sew up the peppers with a few stitches.
Pack the peppers into a baking dish.
Bake and make the gravy
Pour in enough weak stock to prevent burning, cover, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.
Remove the strings and keep the peppers hot while you add a tablespoon of brown roux to the gravy in the dish.
Boil the gravy once.
Pour the gravy over the stuffed peppers.
If the gravy is too thick, add a little boiling water to thin it.
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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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet peppers
- Hollow shells that hold the stuffing and soften as they bake.
- Forcemeat of tongue, chicken, ham, or veal
- Forms a savory, firm filling that holds its shape when baked.
- Boiled rice
- Adds bulk to the stuffing and absorbs juices as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, keeping the stuffing moist.
- Brown roux
- Thickens the stock into a smooth gravy and adds a toasted flavor.
- Weak stock
- Provides liquid that keeps the peppers from burning and forms the base of the gravy.
The step that matters
Adding the brown roux to the gravy. Roux thickens through starch that swells when heated in liquid. Adding it to hot stock and boiling briefly lets the starch thicken fully without lumps, and it can be thinned if too stiff.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, chicken, rice, butter):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Tomatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, chicken, rice, butter. 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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