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Stuffed Pepper

A green pepper filled with a white sauce of butter, flour, milk, veal or chicken, topped with buttered crumbs and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Stuffed Pepper

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 pepper

  1. Cut the top off the pepper and remove the seeds and membrane.

  2. Slice a thin piece from the bottom so it can stand upright.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 5 tablespoons of butter, then stir in 3 tablespoons of flour and ½ teaspoon of salt.

  2. Gradually add 4 cups of milk, stirring until the mixture thickens to form a white sauce.

  3. Add the chopped meat and onion juice to the sauce, mixing well.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill the prepared pepper with the meat mixture and top with 1 tablespoon of buttered crumbs.

  2. Place the pepper in a baking pan and add boiling water to the bottom.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and carries flavor while forming the roux base.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a white sauce that holds the meat together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, giving it body and creaminess.
Cooked veal or chicken
Provides the main filling, adding protein and substance to the dish.

The step that matters

Stirring the milk into the roux. Adding the milk gradually while stirring keeps the flour evenly dispersed, so the sauce thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, milk, butter, veal, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, milk, butter, veal, flour. 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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