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Stuffed Peppers

A baked dish of green peppers filled with meat, rice, and tomato, topped with a tomato‑based gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Stuffed Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the peppers by cutting off a slice at the stem end and removing seeds and partitions.

  2. Soak the peppers and end slices in cold water for 24 hours, changing the water 3-4 times.

Fill and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped meat, melted butter, diced tomato, uncooked rice, and salt.

  2. Fill the peppers with the mixture and replace the end slices.

  3. In a baking pan, add the onion slice, butter, tomato juice, and enough water to reach half the height of the peppers.

  4. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 1 hour, basting every 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Once done, lift the peppers to a platter, thicken the gravy, and pour it over the peppers.

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. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  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

Rice
Absorbs moisture and juices during baking, becoming tender and filling the pepper.
Chopped meat
Provides the savoury filling that cooks through inside the peppers.
Tomato
Adds acidity and moisture to the filling and the gravy.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the filling and the pan gravy.
Green peppers
Act as the edible shell that holds the filling and softens during baking.

The step that matters

Basting during the 1 hour bake. Basting every 15 minutes keeps the peppers and filling moist as the liquid in the pan reduces, helping the rice cook through without drying out.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, meat, butter, tomato, rice):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, meat, butter, tomato, rice. 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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