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An Excellent Turkish Pilau

A mutton and rice pilaf cooked with butter, cinnamon, and salt.

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

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

  2. Cook over medium heat until the meat is browned.

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

  4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed.

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

  6. 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 savory meat flavor as it browns in the butter.
Fresh butter
Browns the meat and adds richness and fat to the grains.
Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish, absorbing the hot water as it cooks to a tender texture.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic spice that perfumes the rice.

The step that matters

Simmering until all the liquid is absorbed. If the heat is too high, the liquid boils off unevenly and the bottom scorches, while too little heat leaves the rice hard. Gentle simmering lets the grains steam and soften evenly.

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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