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English Stuffed Peppers

A dish of green peppers stuffed with a breadcrumb and meat mixture, baked with stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and thyme are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

English Stuffed Peppers

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 peppers

  1. Remove the stem and cut the peppers in half lengthwise, removing the seeds.

  2. Boil the pepper halves for 5 minutes, then transfer to cold water.

Fill the peppers

  1. Soak the bread crumbs in stock and mix with chopped meat, onion juice, savory, thyme, salt, and pepper.

  2. Drain the pepper halves and fill them with the stuffing, heaping it up.

  3. Sprinkle browned crumbs and bits of butter on top.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the stuffed peppers in a deep baking dish, pour ½ cup stock around them, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

  2. Serve directly from the baking dish.

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. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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

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

  5. Bread + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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
Hollowed halves form the edible shell that holds the stuffing while baking.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in stock, they bind the filling and keep it moist and tender.
Chopped meat
Forms the savory body of the filling and becomes firm as it cooks.
Butter
Browns the crumbs on top and adds richness and aroma.

The step that matters

Boil the pepper halves for 5 minutes, then transfer to cold water. Brief boiling softens the pepper walls so they bend without tearing, while the cold water stops further cooking so the shells keep some bite and do not turn mushy in the oven.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, bread, meat, thyme, butter. 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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