Name: Baked Peppers
Ingredients: 8 large green peppers; ½ cup cooked rice; 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped; 1 tablespoon butter

Why it works: Rice and tomato 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 ↓

Baked Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

8 large green peppers
½ cup cooked rice
4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 tablespoon butter

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Cut off the stems of the peppers and soak them in salt water for several hours.

Fill and bake

Fill each pepper with cooked rice, chopped tomatoes, and butter.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a few minutes.

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.

Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green peppers: Their flesh softens with baking and forms the edible vessel holding the filling.
Cooked rice: Adds bulk and a soft, absorbent texture to the filling.
Ripe tomatoes: Release their juices as they cook, adding moisture and a mild acidity to the filling.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the filling taste rounded and moist.