Skip to main content
Main

Stuffed Sell Peppers, American Style

Stuffed bell peppers filled with a buttery mushroom and bread crumb mixture, baked and served with veal gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Stuffed Sell Peppers, American Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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 filling

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

  2. Slice off the tops of the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds.

  3. In a saucepan, melt the butter and lightly fry the chopped onions.

  4. Add the chopped mushrooms and cover the saucepan until moisture is reduced.

  5. Stir in the reduced Allemande sauce, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  6. Remove from heat and mix in the egg yolks and parsley.

Bake and serve

  1. Stuff the mixture into the prepared peppers and place them in a buttered baking pan.

  2. Sprinkle additional bread crumbs on top and add a small piece of butter to each pepper.

  3. Bake until nicely browned, then serve with a teaspoon of veal gravy over each.

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

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

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Mushroom + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

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

  5. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Bell peppers
Hollowed shells that hold the filling and soften as they bake.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set firm when baked.
Reduced allemande sauce
Adds creamy body and moisture to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the filling body, with a browned top.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and savory depth to the filling.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory aroma when gently fried in butter.

The step that matters

Remove from heat before adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks begin to set when hot, so stirring them into a very hot mixture can scramble them and leave lumps. Cooling slightly first keeps the filling smooth and evenly bound.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, mushroom, sauce, bread, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, mushroom, sauce, bread, nutmeg, egg. 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.

More stuffed bell peppers recipes

Brazilian 3 See all 65 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesMushroom SoupMushroom Soup60 recipes