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Stuffed Bell Peppers

A dish of bell peppers filled with a seasoned cabbage mixture and topped with spiced vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the peppers

  1. Slit the peppers on one side and remove the seeds.

  2. Soak the peppers in weak alum water overnight.

Make the filling

  1. Sprinkle the cabbage, onions, and green peppers with coarse sea salt and let the salted vegetables stand overnight.

  2. Squeeze the vegetables dry.

  3. Pour the vinegar and spices over the vegetables.

  4. Boil the mixture for 15 minutes.

Stuff and pickle

  1. Stuff the peppers with the cabbage mixture.

  2. Sew the peppers closed.

  3. Pour the spiced vinegar over the stuffed 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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 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

Bell peppers
Their firm walls hold the filling and give the pickled peppers their structure.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a crisp texture to the stuffing.
Onions
Contribute savory flavour and moisture to the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar.
Apple vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves and sharpens the pickling liquid.
White mustard seed
Adds a sharp, pungent aroma and flavour to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Squeeze the vegetables dry. Salted cabbage and onions release a lot of water. If they are not squeezed well, the filling stays wet, dilutes the spiced vinegar, and can make the stuffed peppers soggy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cabbage, sugar, mustard, celery, ginger, cinnamon):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, sugar, mustard, celery, ginger, cinnamon. 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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