Name: Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: 6 bell peppers; 1 slice of ham or other meat, chopped fine; 6 crackers, soaked; ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper; ½ teaspoon chili pepper; 1 small onion, chopped; 1 small piece of garlic, minced; butter, for mixing and greasing

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Remove the insides of the bell peppers.
Soak the hulls in salt water.
Chop the ham or other meat finely.
Soak the crackers and crumble them.

Fill and bake

In a bowl, mix the meat, soaked crackers, cayenne pepper, chili pepper, onion, garlic, and a little butter.
Stuff the mixture into the prepared bell peppers.
Bake the stuffed peppers at 350°F (175°C) until heated through.

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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ham + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bell peppers: Hollowed shells that hold the filling and soften as they bake.
Crackers: Soaked and crumbled, they absorb moisture and bind the filling together.
Ham or other meat: Provides savoury body and richness to the filling.
Onion: Adds sweetness and aroma as it cooks into the filling.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the filling stay moist.