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Rice Stuffed Peppers

Rice Stuffed Peppers are bell peppers filled with a mixture of cooked rice, ground meat, egg, onion, breadcrumbs, and seasonings, baked with tomatoes and bacon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Rice Stuffed Peppers

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the rice, egg, pork, onion, crumbs, salt, and peppers.

  3. Wash the peppers, remove the ends and seeds, then stuff them with the mixture.

Bake

  1. Place the stuffed peppers in a baking dish and pour the strained tomatoes over them.

  2. Top each pepper with a thin slice of bacon.

  3. Cover the dish and bake for 15 minutes.

  4. Uncover and bake until well done and browned.

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. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked rice
Bulks out the filling and gives the stuffing a light, tender texture.
Egg
Binds the filling so it holds its shape when baked.
Ground pork or beef
Adds savory richness and fat that keeps the filling moist.
Cracker or bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the filling hold together.
Tomatoes
Provide moisture and acidity that cook into a sauce around the peppers.
Bacon
Renders fat over the peppers and adds smoky flavor and browning.

The step that matters

Covering, then uncovering the dish. Covering traps steam so the filling cooks through and the pepper softens; uncovering lets the surface brown and the sauce reduce. Skipping either stage leaves the peppers either underdone or pale and watery.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, pork, onion, bread, pepper, tomato):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, pork, onion, bread, pepper, tomato. 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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