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An Excellent Turkish Pilau

A mutton and rice dish simmered with butter, water, salt, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

An Excellent Turkish Pilau

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chopped mutton and fresh butter.

  2. Set the saucepan on the fire and let the meat stew until browned.

Cook the rice

  1. Add the washed rice, hot water, salt, and cinnamon.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until no liquid remains.

  3. Remove from heat and cover, letting it sit for 20-30 minutes.

  4. Serve hot, shaped in a dome.

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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  3. Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  4. Mutton + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,781 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 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

Mutton
Provides the main savoury flavour and richness as its fat renders into the pan.
Fresh butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the meat brown.
Best rice
Forms the body of the pilaf, absorbing the broth and cooking to tender grains.
Hot water
Serves as the cooking liquid that the rice absorbs as it steams.

The step that matters

Simmering until no liquid remains. Cooking on low heat after the boil lets the rice absorb the liquid evenly. Too much heat can scorch the bottom before the grains are tender, and the resting period then lets the steam finish cooking them.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Turmericfits about as well
  2. Cinnamonthe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Pepperfits about as well

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