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Meat Stuffed Peppers

A baked dish of green peppers filled with a seasoned ground beef mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Mix the ground beef, tomatoes, onions, Tabasco sauce, salt, white pepper, bread crumbs, and beaten egg together in a bowl.

  3. Cut off the stem end of the green peppers and remove the seeds.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the pepper with the meat mixture and replace the stem end, securing it with a toothpick.

  2. Place the stuffed peppers in a casserole or baking dish.

  3. Cover the dish.

  4. Bake until the peppers are tender, about 30-40 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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 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

Ground lean beef
Forms the main filling and provides savory flavor and body.
Bread or cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and help hold the filling together with the egg.
Egg
Binds the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
Sieved tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity to the filling.
Onions
Add aroma and sweetness as they soften in the filling.

The step that matters

Covering the dish before baking. Covering traps steam so the peppers become tender and the meat cooks through evenly, while the filling stays moist rather than drying out in the oven.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, tomato, onion, sauce, bread, egg):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, onion, sauce, bread, egg. 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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