Name: Stuffed Baked Peppers
Ingredients: 1 cup cooked meat; ½ cup canned tomatoes or 1 small tomato; 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter; ½ cup cooked rice; 1 slice onion; coarse sea salt to taste; black pepper to taste; 4 large bell peppers

Why it works: Tomato and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,539 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Stuffed Baked Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the filling

In a saucepan, combine cooked meat, canned tomatoes, olive oil, and cooked rice.
Chop the onion finely and add it to the mixture along with salt and pepper.
Cook until well blended.

Stuff and bake

Stuff the mixture into the bell peppers and place the tops back on.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes in a bread tin.

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.

Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,994 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked meat: Provides the savory, protein-rich body of the filling.
Cooked rice: Adds bulk and soft texture that absorbs the tomato juices.
Canned tomatoes: Supply moisture and acidity that keep the filling juicy.
Bell peppers: Act as the edible shell that holds the filling and softens as it bakes.