Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Stuffing for Peppers
Ingredients
Directions
Chop and scald the cabbage, then press out all the water.
Mix in the white mustard seed, celery seed, horseradish, cloves, allspice, mace, ginger, brown sugar, sweet oil, and chopped garlic.
Remove the peppers from brine and soak them in clear water for one day.
Soak the peppers in vinegar for several days before stuffing.
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.
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Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,832 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,038 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,620 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, celery, horseradish, clove, allspice, ginger, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, celery, horseradish, clove, allspice, ginger, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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