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Stuffed Peppers

A baked dish of sweet peppers filled with a beef and breadcrumb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cut the peppers in half and remove all seeds.

  3. Boil the beef until tender, then chop it finely.

Fill and bake

  1. In a bowl, combine the chopped beef, beaten eggs, butter, cream, tomatoes, bread crumbs, onion, pepper seeds, celery seed, salt, and black pepper.

  2. Fill the pepper halves with the mixture.

  3. Sprinkle additional bread crumbs on top.

  4. Bake until the peppers are brown.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
Lean beef
Provides the main protein and savory body of the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add body to the stuffing.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling tender.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that balance the rich beef.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavor in the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until the peppers are brown. The peppers must become tender and the filling must set through, but overbaking dries the beef and can toughen the eggs. Watch for browning and tender pepper walls rather than relying on time alone.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, beef, egg, butter, cream, bread, onion):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, beef, egg, butter, cream, bread, onion. 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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