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Pepper Tumbals

A stuffed pepper baked with butter, mushrooms, and an egg, served with white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Pepper Tumbals

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. Butter a tin timbal mold or cup.

  2. Line the mold with the red pepper.

  3. Butter the inside of the pepper and fill it with chopped mushrooms.

  4. Crack a raw egg into each pepper.

  5. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the mold in a baking pan half full of boiling water.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until the egg is thoroughly cooked.

  3. Turn out and serve with white sauce.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

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

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,480 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Red pepper
Forms the edible shell that holds the filling and gives the timbal its shape.
Eggs
Set when heated, binding the filling into a firm, sliceable custard-like center.
Mushrooms
Add moisture and earthy flavor to the filling as they release liquid while cooking.
Butter
Adds richness and helps keep the pepper and mold from sticking.

The step that matters

Bake until the egg is thoroughly cooked. Egg proteins set as they heat, and underbaked egg stays runny while overbaking makes it rubbery. The water bath moderates the heat so the egg sets gently and evenly.

“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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