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Peppers Stuffed with Oysters

A pepper filled with oysters, bread crumbs, onions, and butter, baked and served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 ↓

Peppers Stuffed with Oysters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut a slice from the top of the pepper and scoop out the inside.

  2. Parboil the pepper in boiling salted water for 5 minutes.

  3. Chop the pepper and onion very finely.

  4. Parboil the oysters, drain, and cut them into small pieces.

  5. Soak the bread crumbs in the oyster liquor, then press out the liquor.

Make the filling

  1. Sauté the chopped pepper and onion in butter until light brown.

  2. Combine the sautéed mixture with the oysters and bread crumbs.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then fill the peppers with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Top with buttered cracker crumbs and bake until tender.

  2. Serve with tomato sauce.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Oysters
Provide the main savory filling and briny flavor of the dish.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the oyster liquor and help bind the filling so it holds its shape.
Butter
Adds richness and, when sautéed, browns the chopped pepper and onion for flavor.
Pepper
Forms the edible cup and adds mild sweetness and tender texture when baked.

The step that matters

Pressing out the oyster liquor from the bread crumbs. Bread crumbs soaked in liquid that is not pressed out add too much moisture, so the filling can turn soggy and loose instead of holding together in the pepper.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, oyster, bread, butter, tomato, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, oyster, bread, butter, tomato, sauce. 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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