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 ↓
Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the peppers
Cut the tops off the peppers.
Remove the seeds.
Soak the peppers in salt water overnight.
Make the cabbage filling
Sprinkle ½ cup salt over the chopped cabbage.
Let the salted cabbage stand for 1 hour.
Squeeze out the salt water from the cabbage.
Add the celery seed, mustard seed, and horseradish to the cabbage.
Mix the cabbage mixture well.
Stuff and pickle
Stuff the peppers tightly with the cabbage mixture without breaking them.
Turn the stuffed peppers upside down until all are filled.
Pack the peppers into a crock with the open ends facing up.
Boil 2 quarts of vinegar with 3 cups of sugar.
Pour the hot vinegar over the peppers.
Let the peppers stand overnight.
Repeat the boiling and pouring process for 3 consecutive mornings.
Jar and seal
Pack the peppers into Mason jars.
Pour hot vinegar over the jars.
Seal the jars.
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).
-
Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,169 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together481 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green peppers
- Form the edible shell that holds the filling and softens during pickling.
- Cabbage
- Provides the bulk of the crisp, mildly sharp filling.
- Vinegar
- Acidity that preserves the peppers and gives them their tangy flavor.
- Sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
- Horseradish
- Adds a sharp, pungent heat to the filling.
The step that matters
Squeezing out the salted cabbage. Salting draws water out of the cabbage; if it is not squeezed well, excess liquid dilutes the vinegar brine and leaves the filling watery and less crisp.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cabbage, mustard, horseradish, vinegar, sugar):
- Dillfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, mustard, horseradish, vinegar, sugar. 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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