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Preparing Peppers for Stuffing
Peppers
Cut off the tops of the peppers or cut them in two lengthwise, and remove the inner fibers and seeds. Drop into boiling water, remove from the fire, let stand ten to twelve minutes, then drain.
A blanching step rather than a finished dish, and the timing is the only thing in it that needs comment.
- The hinge: off the heatThe peppers go into boiling water and the pan comes straight off the fire. This is a steep, not a boil — ten to twelve minutes of active simmering would collapse the shells before you ever stuffed them.
- Which peppers"Peppers" here almost certainly means large sweet peppers, green in season, though the recipe does not say so. Squat, thick-walled bells hold a filling better than the long tapered kind.
- Cut for the fillingTops off for a deep case that suits rice, meat or macaroni mixtures; split lengthwise for shallow boats that bake faster and brown more evenly.
- Inner fibersThe white pith at the ribs is tough and can taste faintly bitter. Cut it out with the seed core rather than scraping, and trim any thick membrane at the base so the pepper sits flat.
- Doneness to aim forPull them when the flesh has just lost its squeak and a knife tip enters the wall with slight resistance. They finish cooking in the oven under the stuffing.
- Drain properlySet the halves cut side down on a rack or towel for a few minutes. Water pooling inside will thin the filling and steam the peppers rather than roast them.
- If you skip itUnblanched peppers tend to stay crisp and slightly raw-tasting through a moderate bake. The blanch appears to exist to close that gap rather than to add flavor.
Stuffed peppers often earn a page of their own in early twentieth-century American household books because sweet peppers were then largely a summer garden crop, cheap and abundant for a few weeks and awkward to use up. Separating the preparation of the shell from the filling — a general method with the specific dishes following — let one paragraph serve a dozen recipes.