Name: Baked and Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients: 6 green peppers; 1 pint cooked chicken or veal, diced; ½ cup bread crumbs; 1 spoonful mashed potato; salt to taste; pepper to taste; 2 tablespoons cream; 1 heaping teaspoon flour

Why it works: Chicken and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,756 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

Baked and Stuffed Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the peppers

Steam or boil the green peppers until tender, then cool and remove the seeds.

Make the filling

In a bowl, combine the diced meat, bread crumbs, mashed potato, salt, pepper, cream, and flour.
Mix well and fill the prepared peppers with the forcemeat mixture.

Bake

Bake the stuffed peppers in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 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.

Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,756 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,258 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,355 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Bread + potatotop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together434 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken or veal: Provides the main body and protein of the filling.
Bread crumbs: Absorbs moisture and helps bind the filling into a soft, cohesive mass.
Mashed potato: Adds moisture and body, helping the filling stay tender rather than dry.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft during baking.
Flour: Thickens the filling slightly so it holds its shape when baked.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, chicken, bread, cream, flour):

Spinachfits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Leekfits about as well
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, chicken, bread, cream, 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.