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Stuffed Sweet Peppers
One pint force-meat made from cooked meat or chicken. Cut a lid from the top of the peppers after washing. Scoop the seeds and fill with force-meat on top, sprinkle with bread crumbs and a small piece of butter. Place in moderate oven and bake three-quarters of an hour. The lid is frequently replaced before being put in the oven. The pepper can also be stuffed by cutting the pepper in half and removing seeds, then filling with force-meat, rounding and sprinkling with bread crumbs, and clarified butter and baking. A nut force-meat is also frequently used for the above.
A straightforward stuffed pepper built on leftovers, written for cooks who kept a bowl of cooked meat on hand. The vagueness about seasoning and moisture is the main thing to fix.
- Oven temperatureA moderate oven is usually reckoned at about 350F (sources vary, roughly 325-375F). Three-quarters of an hour at that heat will fully soften a bell pepper and brown the crumbs; check at 35 minutes if the peppers are thin-walled.
- Force-meat, definedHere it means cooked meat or chicken chopped or ground fine, bound with a little stock, gravy or thick white sauce and seasoned. It is not raw sausage meat. A pint is about 2 cups, enough for roughly 4 large peppers or 6 halves.
- The hinge: moistureBecause the filling is already cooked, nothing in the pan releases liquid, and a dry force-meat bakes to sawdust. Moisten it until it just holds together on a spoon, and season assertively with salt, pepper and onion, since the pepper itself contributes almost nothing.
- "Sweet peppers"Any bell pepper, red or green. Peppers of the period were probably smaller and thinner-fleshed than today's hybrids, so a large supermarket bell may want an extra ten minutes.
- Blanching, optionalSome period recipes direct parboiling the shells two or three minutes before filling, though this one does not. It is worth doing with thick-walled modern peppers so the flesh and the filling finish together.
- Clarified butterButter melted and the milk solids skimmed and poured off. It browns crumbs without scorching; plain melted butter works, only darker.
- Nut force-meatThe recipe gives no formula. A typical one of the period would be finely chopped nuts with breadcrumbs, stock or milk and seasoning. Toast the nuts first and keep the mix looser than you think necessary.
- ServingOne whole pepper or two halves per person as a supper dish. Set them in a snug baking dish so they stand upright.