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Curried Rice

A rice dish flavored with butter, onion, curry powder, salt, pepper, and boiled in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Curried Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the rice thoroughly and soak it in cold water for several hours.

Cook

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the chopped onion; cook until the onion begins to color.

  2. Drain the rice and add it to the saucepan; stir for a few minutes.

  3. Add the curry powder, salt, and pepper, then pour in the boiling water.

  4. Cover and cook rapidly for 10 minutes, then reduce heat and cook slowly for 45 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. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish; its starch sets as it absorbs the boiling water.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and carries the curry powder's flavor through the rice.
Curry powder
Provides the aroma and flavor that define the dish.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness as it softens and begins to color in the butter.

The step that matters

Cover and cook rapidly, then reduce heat. Rapid boiling at first brings the water up to temperature, then gentle heat lets the rice absorb the liquid and steam evenly without scorching or leaving it hard in the center.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, pepper. 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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