Name: Stubbed Green Peppers
Ingredients: 10 large green peppers; 3 cups stale bread, moistened with cold water; ½ cup minced cold meat; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Cold gravy, as needed

Why it works: Bread and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Stubbed Green Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

10 large green peppers
3 cups stale bread, moistened with cold water
½ cup minced cold meat
Coarse sea salt, to taste
Cold gravy, as needed

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

Wash the green peppers and boil them in water for 5 minutes.
Remove the peppers from the water and rub off the skins with a wet cloth.
Cut off the stem ends and remove the seeds with a large spoon.

Stuff and bake

Stuff the peppers with a mixture of minced meat and moistened bread, seasoned with salt.
Replace the stems and place the peppers in a deep dish.
Pour cold gravy into the dish until full and bake at 350°F (175°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.

Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + meattop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 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

Green peppers: Hold the stuffing in their hollow shells and soften as they cook.
Stale bread: Absorbs moisture and keeps the stuffing tender and light rather than dense.
Minced meat: Adds savoury flavour and substance to the stuffing filling.
Gravy: Surrounds the peppers in the dish, adding moisture and rich flavour during baking.

The step that matters

Pour cold gravy into the dish until full and bake. The peppers must sit in enough gravy to keep the filling moist while the peppers soften. Gravy that is too thin or too little can leave the filling dry or the peppers unevenly cooked.

“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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Stubbed Green Peppers